Message from discussion Lotto Simulation

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer,comp.lang.pascal,sci.math.stat,alt.info-theory,rec.puzzles
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From: b...@gibdo.engr.washington.edu (Bob)
Subject: Re: Lotto Simulation
Message-ID: <1992Nov27.025455.13978@gibdo.engr.washington.edu>
Sender: n...@u.washington.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1992 03:10:16 GMT
Lines: 21

thomp...@atlas.socsci.umn.edu writes:
| By the way, since the odds of getting all six right in any order are 1
| in 15,890,700, a ticket is worth more than one dollar only if the
| jackpot goes above $15,890,700.  (And this is true only if no one else
| holds the same number.)

  What is the general equation to calculate the expected value that
  takes the number of people playing and the possibility of sharing 
  the prize into account?  

  In other words, calculate the expected value of a $1 ticket given
  a prize of $P, where n numbers (6 in this case) are chosen out of
  a possible N numbers (50 in this case) and there are m people
  playing.

  Assume that everyone picks randomly or that you pick your ticket
  randomly (does it matter?).
  ==

  Bob (b...@gibdo.engr.washington.edu)