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2 Responses to “How do I write the formula in MS Excel to get the Probability of a Number to Come up in a Lottery?”
You would need to know all of the historical drawings to get the probabilty of specific numbers occuring.
Statistically, the odds of any one number coming up in a lottery where three numbers are drawn and the numbers are through 40 are 1 in 64000. The formula is…
40 cubed (40 x 40 x40). This assumes you can have the same number multiple times.
In mathematical terms, the total number of different lottery number sequences depends on whether the order of the numbers is important or not. Usually, the numbers can appear in any order so you would use the Combination function as follows:
=COMBIN(number of items, number of items chosen each time)
So in your example, enter this formula on your spreadsheet:
=COMBIN(40,3)
This will give the result 9,880 which means that the probability of any 3 number combination occurring is 1 in 9,880.
If the order of numbers is important i.e. 1, 2, 3 is NOT the same as 1, 3, 2 or 3, 2, 1 then you need the Permutation function
=PERMUT(number of items, number of items chosen each time)
Again, in your example, enter this formula on your spreadsheet:
=PERMUT(40,3)
This will give the result 59,280 which means that the probability of any 3 number combination occurring is 1 in 59,280.
The probability of any one number arising is, of course, 1 in 40
January 26th, 2009 at 7:50 am
You would need to know all of the historical drawings to get the probabilty of specific numbers occuring.
Statistically, the odds of any one number coming up in a lottery where three numbers are drawn and the numbers are through 40 are 1 in 64000. The formula is…
40 cubed (40 x 40 x40). This assumes you can have the same number multiple times.
January 29th, 2009 at 5:31 am
In mathematical terms, the total number of different lottery number sequences depends on whether the order of the numbers is important or not. Usually, the numbers can appear in any order so you would use the Combination function as follows:
=COMBIN(number of items, number of items chosen each time)
So in your example, enter this formula on your spreadsheet:
=COMBIN(40,3)
This will give the result 9,880 which means that the probability of any 3 number combination occurring is 1 in 9,880.
If the order of numbers is important i.e. 1, 2, 3 is NOT the same as 1, 3, 2 or 3, 2, 1 then you need the Permutation function
=PERMUT(number of items, number of items chosen each time)
Again, in your example, enter this formula on your spreadsheet:
=PERMUT(40,3)
This will give the result 59,280 which means that the probability of any 3 number combination occurring is 1 in 59,280.
The probability of any one number arising is, of course, 1 in 40
Hope this helps