Question

In a lottery, the top cash prize was $642 million, going to three lucky winners. Players pick five different numbers from 1 to 56 and one number from 1 to 49.

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A player wins a minimum award of $225 by correctly matching three numbers drawn from the white balls (1 through 56) and matching the number on the gold ball (1 through 49). What is the probability of winning the minimum award?
The probability of winning the minimum award is

Answer 1

Total number of possible outcomes:

Number of ways to choose 3 numbers from 56 (56 choose 3): 56! / (3! * (56 - 3)!) = 22,957

Number of ways to choose 1 number from 49: 49

Total number of possible outcomes = 22,957 * 49 = 1,128,593

Number of favorable outcomes:

Number of ways to choose 1 number from 49: 1

Number of favorable outcomes = 1

Probability of winning the minimum award:

Probability = Number of favorable outcomes / Total number of possible outcomes

Probability = 1 / 1,128,593 ≈ 0.000000888, or approximately 0.0000888%