Concept Question 1 (Trinity College)

You buy one lottery ticket every week and always choose your birthdate as your "lucky" number. But you never win! To increase your chances of winning without spending more money you should:

  1. Use Easypick to have the computer randomly pick your number from now on.
  2. Keep using your lucky number because the laws of probability say that the longer you wait the more likely it is to be chosen.
  3. Pick a new number using 30’s or 40’s since you know that fewer people select numbers from this range.
  4. Collect data on drawings for the last month to see which numbers are chosen most often, and use one of those.
  5. It’s not possible to increase your chances of winning.

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Introduction

Contributors: Barbara Walden, Judith Moran
Institution: Trinity College
Target Audience: General
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