My wife says,"Two Powerball tickets double your odds of winning." I disagree, Who is right?

Question

Okay, to make the math simple, let's say that the odds are a million to one. She says that if you buy two powerball tickets, the odds are 500,000 to one. I say that if you buy two tickets at a million to one odds, you have only increased your chance of winning by one, "two in a million". She doesn't get it. *rolls eyes and sighs*--So, who is right?

Answer 1

If everyone buys an extra ticket to increase their odds then we'll nobody increased their odds. but going from 1 in a million (TO) 2 in a million did double your chances but if you buy a 3rd after you had 2 you no longer doubled your chances. tell her that, but dont plan on getting any that night...unless you hit the LOTTO.

Answer 2

Odds are that if you have not learned to agree with your wife no amount of winnings will bring happiness.  Just act completely shocked that you lost.

Answer 3

I look at it this way... if you're on line in front of me spending half your retirement check on lottery tickets, I'm going to dislike you.  If you win, I'm going to hate your guts.

Answer 4

Well, sorry but you can't argue with a woman... it doubles your chances .. by reason that 2 chances in 30,000,000 is twice as many chances as 1 chance in 30,000,000.

I bought 14 games next week's powerball.. it's $40,000,000 in Sydney. Fact is... I should have spared some of my money... having 14 chances in 30,000,000 is somewhat like having 1 chance in 30,000,000 even if it is 14 times as many chances.

Edit:

My son got this wrong too and I thought he was good at maths... but if you buy 100,000 combinations of numbers out of the 1,000,000 combinations available then those who reduce this like you would with a fraction get odds of 10:1. That is most surely wrong.... by reason that there are still 900,000 other combinations that could win... something like that. The important thing to realise is that If my wife had said suggested to reduce it like a fraction... then she would be right.

Answer 5

does the second ticket, contain the same numbers as the first? what your wife should be saying is:

2 power ball tickets doubles your CHANCE at winning, you would have to buy a ridiculous amount of tickets to double your odds at winning.

Answer 6

Math doesn't lie, you're right.

Answer 7

well i think your right it dosn't help your chance at winning any more if you buy 2 tickets. maby you should buy 10 tickets that way you might have a bigger chance at winning lol :) good luck with trying to explain it although you might just stress your self out trying but to save the stress just agree to disagree it works better. have fun.

Answer 8

*rolls eyes and sighs*  You men always think we don't get it.   Pshh.

Two is better than one!  But two for one is better...   lol

Answer 9

I hate to take sides against a friend, but your wife is right on this one.

Make it really simple.  Say that there are only 4 numbers to pick from. If you have one ticket, you have a 1/4 chance of winning. Two non-identical tickets will raise your chances to 2/4, doubling your chance to win. This is the same as a 1/2 chance, just like a two in a million chance, mathematically, is the exact same as a one in five-hundred thousand chance.

For the record, your chances of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 146,107,962 on a single ticket. Even if you buy two tickets, your chances are still less than 1 in 70 million.

Answer 10

Odds are now 1 mill:2, not 500k:1 like she insists.

It's basic odds math, taught as part of Geometry when I was in school.

You sir, are correct.

Answer 11

da_hal is right, Give him the 10 points and be happy that the debate is over and go kiss your wife!

Answer 12

It doesn't really matter.  The odds of winning Powerball are 146m-1.  So even if buying two tickets does double your odds, you now have two chances in 146m.  Not very likely.

Answer 13

I always figured my odds of buying one ticket and winning are roughly the same as the odds of walking down the street and having a winning ticket blow up to my feet.  So I just save my money and walk around in windy weather.

Answer 14

I think that each ticket still has only a one in a million chance of winning. Save your money!

Answer 15

You're right, dude.  Just insist that you're right.

I'm sure you'll win in the end... if you consider sleeping on the couch "winning".

Answer 16

Sweet. You are both right 2 tickets double her odds. But only takes the all over odds down by 2.

Depends on which side is looking at the odds.

this could make your brain explode ....thinking about it too much

Answer 17

Your wife is right.

Statistics course in college.   You can find these formulas too..

Try Probablity Theory in Wikepedia.

Answer 18

You're both saying the equivalent thing, although your chances are commonly expressed as a reduced fraction.  Taking your example, suppose you bought 500,000 tickets (all with different numbers).  You would have a 500,000 in a million chance, which is equivalent to 50/50, which is equivalent to 1/2.

2/1,000,000 = 1/500,000

Edit-

Sorry, when I say 50/50 I mean you have a 1/2 chance.  The 50/50 just means it's like a coin flip.  50% chance of winning.

Answer 19

lol 2 in a million is the same as 1 in 500,000 so you are saying the same thing. She is right though because odds are listed in reduced form. You only use a number other than 1 if you can't divide the denominator and numerator by a common number. Ie 3/7 is 3/7 but 6 in 12 would be 1 in 2.

Answer 20

The odds are on your side this time. lol You would have to spend a fortune on tickets to double your odds. Just pat her on her head, tell her how pretty she is and let it drop. Just know that you are right. She will work on this one over time. hehe Trying to figure it out. Dyslexia messes with you on this kind of thing. It still does me. Even though I know better.

Answer 21

Your wife is right.  It does double your chances of winning.  That doesn't mean your chances are much better, but double is right.

Answer 22

1 ticket= 1,000,000 to one

2 tickets=500,000 to one

3...250,000 to one

4...125,000 to one

Buy 24 or 25 tickets for a sure win....

Please hug Mrs. 8 track for me and tell her that though you are correct,I agree with her completely....LOL

Answer 23

I think that the real question here is, haven't you been married long enough to realize that you can't win an argument with your wife?

even when you win, you lose.

Answer 24

She is.  2 in 1,000,000 equals 500,000 to 1.  My God I just read what everybody else had to say and I'm the only one right.  Send me my 10 points and to all you other people...If you're gonna answer questions, don't just guess and type in what sounds right to you.  If you don't know what you're talking about then close it and go to the next question.

Answer 25

Power ball is a several million to 1 chance of winning, but anyway, your both right. 2 in a million is the same as 1 in 500,000. Reduce your fractions

Answer 26

Your wife is right, assuming the tickets are for the same drawing and are not identical.

But you said you disagreed with her, and then expressed the same odds as she did!  I'm confused!

"two in a million" and 500,000 to 1 are the same thing.

Apparently, instead of agreeing to disagree, you and your bride disagreed to agree.

Answer 27

you areif you get 2 tickets the odds are only a million to two

Answer 28

agree with her even if she is wrong...You will not get any nookie if you don't.....LOL  

an angered wife can be a cold thing at night!

Answer 29

I think you're both wrong. You have 2 1 in 148m chances. they don't add together or affect each other.

It's like flipping a coin. If you flip a coin and get heads, that does not increase the chance that the next flip will get tails.

the more tickets you have, the more chances you have to win, but each ticket has the same odds regardless of the total number of tickets you have.

Answer 30

i believe that it would increase your chances of winning...i don't think that it actually doubles it.

((8tm))

Answer 31

You are right.

EDIT: While 2/1,000,000 is equal to 1/500,000; odds are different than fractions, hence your odds are 1,000,000:1 aka one million to one, not 1,000,000/1 aka one million over one.

The ratio of possession with one ticket = 1:999,999

The ratio of possession with two tickets = 2: 999,998

With buying two tickets, you would still have 999,998 chances of losing with odds of one million to two. I can't believe how many people here that think that odds are equivalent to fractions!!!! Look how many people need to go back to school!

Sad thing is, the furthest I ever was educated in math is Algebra 2... (Though lack of further education was not due to mathematical learning disability but rather complications beyond my control.)

Oh yeah, personally I think that sleeping on the couch would be worth it. Be a man about it, not a groveling s*x addict. Don't mind the misandrists.