Question

In one​ lottery, a player wins the jackpot by matching all five distinct numbers drawn in any order from the white balls​ (1 through ​) and matching the number on the gold ball​ (1 through ​). If one ticket is​ purchased, what is the probability of winning the​ jackpot?

Answer 1

Answer: The total number of possible outcomes in the lottery can be calculated by finding the number of ways to choose 5 distinct numbers out of 70, and then multiply that by the number of possible choices for the gold ball (1 out of 25). So:

Total number of outcomes = (70 choose 5) * 25 = 25,989,600

To win the jackpot, the player must match all 5 white ball numbers and the gold ball number. The number of ways to do this is simply 1, since there is only one winning combination.

Therefore, the probability of winning the jackpot with a single ticket is:

Probability of winning = (number of winning outcomes) / (total number of outcomes) = 1 / 25,989,600

So the probability of winning the jackpot with a single ticket is approximately 0.00000003846, or 1 in 25,989,600.

Explanation: