Frazz by Jef Mallett for October 20, 2021

Probability and statistics ARE oddly weird.

I’ve won the lottery multiple times. I mean, I just won 5 bucks or so each time, but that still counts, right?

Besides if the kid wins the government will says shes a minor and keep all the money instead of the 65+% it normally does.

The lottery always happens. Someone winning doesn’t.

I believe David Letterman said “you have almost as much chance of winning if you don’t play at all”.

But on the other hand, I’m pretty sure every winner so far has had a ticket.

We have a friend who plays 50¢ on all the triples every day. Payout is $250 when one hits.

He comes out ahead.

Just curious. Have the winning numbers 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 ever been drawn? Have they ever been played?

It is reported as the most common picked numbers. Last I checked it has never won, but I cannot find a answer from the last ten years.

There is a HUGE difference between zero chance and negligible chance. If you buy 1000 tickets, 1000 times negligible is still negligible. But buying one ticket can make a little sense because negligible is lots greater than zero. I can see buying 1 ticket per game but not multiple tickets.

Buying a lottery ticket allows you to dream for several days of what you would do if you won. So for $2, you get to dream. If you don’t buy the ticket, you can’t dream.

It IS a funny concept – the idea of trials vs. probability and how different the results can be. It applies in tons of situations and is the source of many mentalists bits.

What’s better odds? Winning the lottery or being a successful songwriter?

You’re more likely to be killed by a cow than a shark, but that didn’t keep us from trying to exterminate sharks. Odds are, the human brain will listen to fear sooner than reason.

The tickets were defective and didn’t win, but they won’t give a refund.

I’m still alive. I think that’s winning, not that friends and family who are no longer alive are losers. We each won what we could.

It’s NOT necessarily a given that “someone” will win the big prize…

This is one of many stories told about the fictional Hymie, an old Jewish guy from New York, and his personal relationship with Yahweh. In your own head, imagine him speaking with a pronounced Jewish accent.

Hymie’s talking to his God and says “Yahweh, you know I’ve always been a faithful Jew. I keep kosher, I never miss a sabbath at the synagog, I read the Torah daily, and I’ve raised my 5 children in the proper traditions. I’ve done all you ever asked of me, but I’ve never asked anything in return. But today I have just one little favor to ask. Just one. Just a tiny thing, which you can grant because you’re all-powerful and it wouldn’t cost you anything. Yahweh, would you let me win the lottery?”

And a light shone above Hymie’s head, and a deep voice intoned “Yes, Hymie, you have truly been a faithful servant. Your wish is granted. You will win the lottery.”

So a year goes by, and Hymie still hasn’t won, so he goes up to the tallest peak in the Catskills, gets down on his knees, raises his hands to the heavens and wails “Yahweh, Yahweh, why have you forsaken me? You said I’d win the lottery, but it hasn’t come to pass? What have I done wrong?”

And the lightning flashed, and the thunder rolled, and the clouds parted, and again a brilliant light shone down and a mighty stentorian voice rang out: “Hymie! Meet me halfway! Buy a ticket!”

Well, I mean what are the odds of a random Michigander writing a hit single, deciding to janitor at the local elementary school out of altruism, where it just so happens the current crop of students are rife with prodigious eight-year-olds who share his ethos and interests?

I mean, it happens!

“Weirdz”? She sucks at English as well as math.

Besides, kiddo, you are too young to even play the lottery

lotteries are a tax on people who are lousy at probability calculation.

We used to buy a ticket so that one in five-hundred million chance of winning let us have fun fantasizing about what we would do with the winnings. When the ticket price went from one to two dollars, the fantasy wasn’t worth it anymore.

The lottery is a voluntary math illiteracy tax.