Question

In a lottery the cash prize was 626 million going to three lucky winners. Players pick four different numbers from 1 to 57 and one number from 1 to 45. A player wins a minimum award of 200 by. Correctly matching two numbers drawn from the white balls(1 through 57) and matching the number on the gold ball(1 through 45) what is the probability of winning the minimum award?

Answer 1

The probability of winning the minimum award in the lottery is calculated by considering the combination for selecting two correct white ball numbers and the single correct gold ball number, and then multiplying these probabilities.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the probability of winning the minimum award in the lottery, we must consider the conditions of winning this prize. According to the question, a player wins a minimum award by correctly matching two numbers from the white balls (1 through 57) and matching the number on the gold ball (1 through 45).

The probability of matching two specific numbers from the white balls can be found by calculating the combination of 2 correct numbers out of 4 chosen, divided by the combination of 2 correct numbers out of 57 possible numbers. This is expressed as:

C(4,2)/C(57,2)

Next, we calculate the probability of matching the gold ball. Since there is only one gold ball number chosen and it ranges from 1 to 45, the probability of matching it is 1/45.

The overall probability is the product of the probability of matching two white ball numbers and the probability of matching the gold ball number:

[C(4,2)/C(57,2)] × (1/45)