These 27 tickets guarantee a win on the Lottery

[@parallelcircuit]

Matt, congratulations for making the least depressing video on KZbin that involves a middle aged, unshaven, man comparing lottery numbers on his couch in a dark room with his dog for company.

[@coryman125]

Incredible. Matt, if you're reading this, please pin this comment!

[@moooseman3]

This is such a backhanded compliment of a comment.

[@joadbreslin5819]

Before making that conclusion, I assume that you have watched at least 27 such videos.

[@DuringDark]

@@g.g.k.o. if you are a terrestrial animal (e.g. human, cheetah) having a dog for company is - regardless of your gender or top speed - the best choice ever. It shows sentience, prosocial behaviour and capability for having a dog.

[@randomizednamme]

@@moooseman3it’s satirical

[@Alexand3ry]

It would have been hilarious if 1,000 mathematicians all read the paper and bought the tickets; won the big prize; then had to split it...

[@matj12]

I think that many people pick 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. If these numbers will be drawn, that will be funny.

[@Art_Matters]

At least they would be able to calculate their share themselves... Or copy the answer from another math paper.

[@0dWHOHWb0]

What would be even more hilarious, imo, is if nobody played the numbers in the paper (opting to tune them like Matt) and those ended up being a successful strategy

[@DB-thats-me]

I would have like Matt to have shown how the paper’s numbers fared as well. 🤓

[@adamusher5294]

I think I saw something similar once about 25 years ago. I don't remember the exact details but it was something like $30mil jackpot. It got a lot of press for being one of the biggest jackpots in the country at the time and a few news stations covered it and said something along the lines of 'Of course, if you want to guarantee a win you can purchase every number combination for $10mil... '. And then there were 12 or so division 1 winning tickets... way higher than usual. The thought of someone forking out $10mil to win

[@FlorianLinscheid]

You actually won two tickets. The ticket [8, 14, 18, 20, 40, 44] has 8 and 20 in it.

[@SirRebrl]

He definitely should have just started with checking which set each number came from. 8 & 20 from set 3, and 33 & 56 from set 2. Way simpler than trying to find each iteration of each number across all of the tickets.

[@GasparLewis]

@@SirRebrl Could've even mapped each plane to the games on a unique physical ticket. But maybe that's more an engineering gripe.

[@NotKyleChicago]

I wondered about that, since I thought 8 and 20 were part of the same triangle.

[@mr.cauliflower3536]

Bro's trying to scam the viewers xD

[@verity3616]

This is where I expected a spreadsheet. Put in all the ticket numbers, then program it to highlight the cells based on the actual numbers you enter elsewhere. It would make a good visual too!

[@DJvvAZZ]

Back in the early 90's when NZ lotto was only 6 numbers from 40, I spent waaaay too long working out how to manually fill out tickets, to guarantee 3 numbers for $10. I mean, every combination was accounted for.... I filled it out to plan , and got 3 numbers.... I won $5... Half my spend, but I'll always remember how proud I was, that I worked it out! And now I watch your videos, because math is fun to work out 😂

[@JoJubjub-kx8lp]

I don't get the maths, but filling out 27 lotto pick boxes sounds like something im going to try, like you, if i win a fiver, at least i won, on maths, which would be ironic👍

[@DJvvAZZ]

@@JoJubjub-kx8lp the math worked ( don't ask me how now, it was like 30 years ago, and it involved alot of algorithm, before I new what an algorithm was), but it won't help you now... Bonus numbers, extra numbers, Powerball etc... The math is easy, but to do that now, you need four numbers, of which in NZ, you need for a win, you can't guarantee any win. That said, I also worked out, if you used the math and purchased $15m in individual filled out numbers, on a jackpot of more than that, you can guarantee first division win, but ONLY if your the only winner

[@cambridgemart2075]

The National Lottery in the UK used to be 1 to 49, so 49 numbers with 6 numbers drawn, they increased it to 59 with no reduction in ticket price (in fact it's double what it was in 1992)

[@grbadalamenti]

In Italy they are light years ahead. You can pick 5/90, that is Lotto or 6/90, that is SupeEnalotto.😂😂😂😂

[@teelo12000]

"when NZ lotto was only 6 numbers from 40" it still is! The extra numbers are only additional prizes, there is still a base prize for getting 3 numbers out of 6... though whether or not that base prize is worth it is another question.

[@robynduckworth4160]

I remember when the lottery changed from 49 to 59 and it was marketed as more numbers to choose from. The odds went up considerably and there were many times when there were no wins.

[@amateurcameraman]

That's when it went from "it could be you" to most often it's no one at all. To the point that there are many draws now, where no one wins the jackpot or 5 and the bonus. Meaning that often, the biggest prize won is 5 numbers, £1750.

[@SpamMouse]

@@amateurcameraman Indeed look at the sales from years ago, the ticket sales has fallen.

[@grbadalamenti]

In Italy, they are bloody herassing people to pick from 90 numbers😂😂😂

[@SpamMouse]

@@grbadalamenti Wow, like the French Keno, pick 10 numbers from 1 -> 70 ! (the jackpot isn't that good either)

[@blimeycrikey]

Odds of winning the UK lottery: 45m to 1. Odds of being struck by lightning in the UK: 1.2m to 1.

[@Main267]

Don't gamble is solid advice.

[@litigioussociety4249]

Unless the probability is 50% or higher of winning.

[@communizzy]

@@litigioussociety4249isn’t the expectation value of the winnings being higher than the ticket cost more what you want? Otherwise, if a ticket cost 2 currency units (localize as suits best for you), and 51% of the time you win 1 currency unit, you’re still losing money

[@matthewellisor5835]

@@litigioussociety4249 or it's for sake of mathematics education!

[@toniokettner4821]

⁠@@litigioussociety4249unless the expected value of the logarithm of your bank account after the gamble would increase

[@mensaswede4028]

Unless the odds of winning are 90% but you only win 5% of what you staked. In which case, still don’t gamble.

[@upgradeplans777]

@11:10 I thought that "random numbers live" is a proud tradition on this channel. If anything, compared to "Generating π from 1,000 random numbers", "2,000 throws of three-sided coins." and "Matt flips a coin 100 times.", these 7 numbers from a gravity pick lottery machine are nothing to write home about. By the way, I personally think that air mix machines are more fun to look at. But I'm not from the UK so I don't have much reason to complain about what the UK National Lottery does.

[@lilDaveist]

I found the UKs version soooo stressful. 😂 here in Germany when I watched it as a kid with my parents, it’s all so peaceful, almost therapeutic.

[@stephenosgood210]

😢😢😢😊😮😮

[@ceselb]

@@lilDaveist Used to be same here in Sweden. But have you seen it lately? It's going fast here, they have something like 90 seconds and that's drawing two identical games of 7 numbers.

[@mscha]

Actually, you won *two* lucky dips, on 12 22 32 33 56 57 and on 8 14 18 20 40 44. (Looks like you forgot to mark 8 on your tickets.)

[@timizorzom9506]

How many with the 25?

[@bcubed72]

I get it now: all numbers are 2-digit, and "08" is upside-down. I was wondering why they miscalled 80!

[@edgibbs2794]

@@timizorzom9506 the 25 only gets him one additional win, the series 10,15,16,21,25,28. Edit: apparently the bonus ball only applies if you match 5 of the main numbers, so the 25 gets him nothing extra.

[@adhillA97]

They didn't call 80. The announcer definitely said 8

[@viliml2763]

@@timizorzom9506 another one match of two, [10, 15, 16, 21, 25, 28]

[@martijntervelde5600]

Quite interesting! It does raise two questions though: (1) How many tickets will you need to be sure you have at least 3 matching digits? (2) And how do their likelihood of profits compare?

[@LightPink]

In my mind buying any combination of multiple tickets has the exact same expected outcome as buying one ticket (ignoring prize splitting). Only thing that would change is variance.

[@toniokettner4821]

the profit will always be the expected value of one ticket times the amount of tickets you buy, which is basically 0

[@packered]

​@@toniokettner4821that assumes that these are completely independent events. But they are not. Given the price payout structure, your EV will stay near zero, but it could change up or down depending on the numbers you pick in theory

[@danielyuan9862]

To answer your first question, you would need at least 93 tickets to guarantee at least one ticket with 3 numbers. Each ticket has a 1.086% chance of hitting at least 3 numbers, so 93 tickets is required to get the expected number of tickets that hit at least 3 numbers to be at least 1. But this is a very loose lower bound, since using this method for the 2 numbers problem gives you a lower bound of 10, when the actual minimum is 27.

[@danielyuan9862]

I also constructed a solution with 819 tickets: split the 59 numbers into a group of 15 pairs and a group of 14 pairs, with one left over. For every 3 pairs in the group of 15 pairs, create a ticket. Do the same for the group with 14 pairs. This should cover all possible draws. So that's 15 choose 3 + 14 choose 3 = 819 tickets. I got you an upper and lower bound for this problem, and I'll keep you up to date if I find a tighter bound from either side.

[@Rubrickety]

“It’s okay, I have a system.”?? How many better opportunities could you have to say “It’s okay, I’m a standup mathematician.”?

[@geekjokes8458]

or the classic "trust me, im a mathematician"

[@jdotoz]

Martingale is a system too.

[@juanvera6419]

What's your system

[@cosmicjenny4508]

The non-zero amount of Skylab content in this video pleases me! I love how elegant the maths is for making this work with 27 tickets.

[@garethaethwy]

Every video is automatically a non-zero number of times better when there's a pooch...

[@johnchessant3012]

Wow, almost 8 years since you covered the lottery on the main channel! Love when we advance the original plotlines like this.

[@Kowzorz]

For what it's worth, Matt, a piece of paper with only tons of numbers is exactly how many many people do their lottery tickets. Sadly, most expect the clerk to input the numbers, so I'm happy to see those little scantrons in use :)

[@willguggn2]

Don't most people do birth dates and simple shapes?

[@jboy55]

I remember when the 6/49 came to Canada. They ran a huge ad campaign on, "How are you going to choose your lucky numbers?". They had a Mom say its the ages of her children, a guy using the years his parents were born and the year of his first car. You get the picture. A year later, they ran a campaign in which people in the ads were congratulating their friends and family that "their lucky numbers" were drawn, and the friends and family hitting their heads on the table etc because they lapsed in buying a ticket. Evil

[@davidconner-shover51]

I did similar with a lottery in my state. I even wrote a tidy little spreadsheet program to semi randomly generate the number sets after spending multiple hundreds across 2 weeks (14 drawings), I only came up with one day that paid more than I spent that day. most of the time it was never more than 20% over spending

[@jhosioja]

I think this was back in the 90s or early 00s, but I recall this competition where someone won the chance to do lottery for 50k, and now I recall that amount, it was almost certainly pre-euro (finnish marks, 1 was worth 17 cents in 2002 when we switched), and she won nothing. Or presumably she got like, a bunch of two number hits, but basically nothing compared to the time spent filling out 50k worth of lottery tickets. Which of course tracks because lottery is a waste of money.

[@robertpearce802]

From a National Lottery email "In Saturday’s Lotto draw, match 3 main numbers and instead of winning the normal £30, your prize will be boosted to £60*. Double the celebrations!". That is for Saturday, 5 August 2023. So there is now about 1 in 4 chance of making a net £6. The £60 for three matches is a guaranteed amount and does not depend on the number of winning tickets. I wonder if the National Lottery people have read the paper and decided to up the ante.

[@HunterJE]

Imagine the universe in which he just happened to win the jackpot and had to figure out how to turn that much money back in to the channel

[@russellbeaubien7430]

We would of had the most epic Pi Day video next year

[@lily91556]

I imagine all of his video ideas start with him getting a notification and exclaiming "New maths!"

[@JohnR31415]

And singing it as per Tom Lehrer…

[@kennethaunstrup]

And then him shouting "to the Maths Cave crew!" and running off in the style of the Adam West Batman show

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

@@kennethaunstrup To the Mattmobile!

[@Yupppi]

This perfectly demonstrates why you don't do lottery. Even with math you buy 27 tickets and get 2 right to win basically nothing. In Finland it's otherwise the same but the numbers are 1...40, they roll 7+1 numbers and you have to get 3+1 to win anything (2 euros, which is twice the ticket price). You have to have 6 correct to win anything worth mentioning (I guess 40e is worth mentiong for 5 correct, but nobody bothers to say they won 40e on lottery, 6 correct is 1600e this week).

[@MeriaDuck]

When trying to invite my dog on the couch when Matt asked his, he first was standing exactly between me and the screen, but now has settled next to me🐕🐾

[@the11382]

Don't forget to pet the dog.

[@kevinlucow2291]

Came for the maths, stayed for the dog.

[@RobloxKid123]

You bought 27 tickets and won 1 extra ticket. Now that's what I like to call PROFIT!

[@noot3316]

Real gamblers know you only need one ticket to win big

[@bobbynygaardchrisitansen6874]

yes the math is against everybody but at the end of the day it is quite binary it is either a win or not.

[@HiFolksImAdam]

The numbers went from 49 to 59 in the past few years, right? Off the top of my head, I believe there was no two ball prize, though, just £10 winnings for three. Would be interesting to see if and how this could have been exploited back before the change, and whether you're more likely to "win" before or after

[@thomasdalton1508]

The chance of getting at least 3 out of 49 is much lower than the chance of getting at least 2 out of 59, so if you only care about winning and not about how much you win then it was a good change. The chance of winning the jackpot was significantly reduced, but they did introduce an extra £1m prize. The overall expected value remains that you lose about half your money, since only about half the ticket price goes into the prize fund.

[@jasonswofford5637]

My dog went nuts during the walking in the street part. As soon as it ended he settled down. We tested it five times every time we rewound the video to that part, and it's any part of that part, the dog instantly reacts. All other parts of the video - no reaction. Totally weird. I wonder if there is a background sound that I cannot detect that the dog is detecting somehow?

[@karlwaugh30]

He was walking his dog. Does your dog go nuts when other dogs are on screen, I've known dogs be like this so I suspect it's that.

[@bbgun061]

​@@karlwaugh30the dog wasn't on screen

[@karlwaugh30]

@@bbgun061 but the audio of the dog was there...

[@jasonswofford5637]

@@karlwaugh30 I'll have to listen again with higher volume.

[@davidisonyt]

Wow, your dog is a fantastic actor.

[@andyh7152]

bizarrely I did this math on fixed odd football betting back in the 90's. Worked it out on a psion, using some basic matrix calculations. Not the same approach but it put me off gambling ever after. Wish I'd had the platform and courage to show what I'd worked out. Unfortunately the psion has long since passed away. Used it to rewrite my employers annuity calculations as well. Which got me a disciplinary followed by an a award when they realised what could be done. Happy days!

[@Gravvvyyy]

Dude...I'm going and getting 30 tickets right NOW.

[@mattparker2]

The three extra ones should do the trick.

[@Gravvvyyy]

@@mattparker2 only 1 way to find out.

[@somegeezer]

@@mattparker2 The winner is the one who buys the most tickets, right? I'll get 31!

[@Bovineprogrammer]

@@somegeezer 31! is a lot of tickets...

[@MarkRedekop]

31! Should win all the prizes congratulations!

[@millwrightrick1]

40 years ago here in Ontario we had the 6/39 lottery. Match 3 numbers and you got a prize. My idea then was to cut a dowel into39 pieces, number them and draw them at random until our group had 10? different tickets. We won something almost every week but never a substantial prize.

[@DavidLindes]

Moral of this story: Even if you're doing lots of fancy maths, the lottery is statistically a losing bet.

[@SharienGaming]

almost like its designed to be a losing bet XD

[@jdotoz]

If it were not, the government wouldn't run it.

[@grbadalamenti]

Well, it was designed by mathematicians😂😂😂😂

[@guitardave]

This was very interesting. I wonder if it could be adapted to produce a guaranteed 2 numbers from 5 balls drawn from a total of 47 balls (the UK Set For Life lottery)?

[@GuidoHatsizz]

Matt, the first 20 seconds of your video is amazing. Thank you for making this video.

[@murk1e]

Fascinated by the box of switches on the desk!

[@maxsnts]

Would be interesting to see how many twos there was in that week compared to other weeks

[@drrpsycho4987]

I liked this video alot tbh, just seemed more down to earth. Truly highlights that you're just a nut job 24/7 haha (I mean that in a nice way) keep up the good work you inspire this 21 year old who had a mandatory understanding of maths throughout school to keep learning new things. I'm sure I'm not the only inspired one here either 👍

[@1kreature]

My biggest takeaway from this is actually "That looks like a Labrador" to which my brain immediately rebelled and stated "Ofcource it is a cozey wozey woofsey Labrador, the statistics for it not to be would boggle the mind!"

[@Nethershaw]

Matt Parker: You are such a nerd that you are mathematically the most satisfying kind of nerd for another nerd to watch.

[@feronanthus9756]

The true irony is if you had played the numbers on the paper you would have made 4 matches of two

[@agurdel]

1:35 I misread the sign in the window and wondered what a class E toilet is.

[@luzallende4015]

That was great! I was able to follow you! I went back and saw the pattern work!

[@iseriver3982]

Its nice of skylab to remember your lead. Australians can be a real menace when not properly trained.

[@razielhamalakh9813]

What's the story behind the comma wall art?

[@MakeDataUseful]

I honestly thought WHSmith was only in Airports around the world

[@foobar1500]

My personal preference on lottery is to play with sets of rows which have minimal possible overlap between each possible pair of rows on these sets. One might argue that such play reduces "clumpiness" of winnings although it certainly doesn't improve chances of winning the jackpot or even getting even. Just that individually random rows don't really have statistical guarantees over a set of rows played.

[@thebiblioholic]

Are you shooting for an April 1 release of your new book?

[@ProgressiveEconomicsSupporter]

Hey Matt, here in 🇩🇪 we luckily habe 6 out of 49 only, ok plus an extra number. How many tickets would I need for 6 out of 49? Or even generally n iut of m? 🤔

[@ReneZ11]

The math becomes more difficult because you need 3 numbers to win instead of two, so the whole derivation using the triangles won't work. And if you include the extra win condition of 2 numbers + SZ it becomes even more complex.

[@ProgressiveEconomicsSupporter]

@@ReneZ11 oh yes, that seems more complicated. Thank you for kindly replying!

[@davidcushing4036]

To match 2 you only need 19 tickets. But as already pointed out this does not win a prize. It is not known what the minimum number of tickets is to guarantee matching at least 3 from 49 numbers is. It is between 88 and 163. I think its a substantially more difficult problem

[@danielyuan9862]

​@@davidcushing4036There's a solution with 163? That's insane!

[@healthbeauty7853]

There are many ways to pick your numbers , python scripts ,random number generators ,or manually picking numbers. Picking numbers manually isn't always the best option and people have bias against picking certain numbers .

11:15 Random Numbers LIVE, my favorite tv show.

[@almightyhydra]

Hmm, times have changed. When I was a kid there were only 49 numbers and prizes started at 3 matches.

[@kylekons3672]

This is the same thing as the card game where you have to find the matching character

[@flyandshy00]

59? In scandinavian countries there's a lottery where you have to pick 6 numbers out of 48, plus 1-5 number. I won smaller prizes like 5 or six times since December.

[@toolebukk]

This is why in the standard Norwegian lottery you need 7 numbers out of 34 for Jackpot and a minimum of 4 for the lowest prize, and in the Scandinavian lottery "Vikinglotto", you need 6 out of 48 AND one extra number out of eight possible, and 3 for the lowest prize. Is this even possible to work out? My conjecture is that in the case of 7 numbers, to be guaranteed minimum prize picking 4 correctly is actually impossible. I am not sure if it has to do with there being an odd number of balls being drawn. One would have to use sets of both 1 and 2 numbers on the same plane, combining three 1's and two 2's, to have four lines connecting seven numbers. Is that even a feasible graph?

[@davidcushing4036]

I can think of 198 tickets that guarantee matching 4 if 34 numbers are used. Good chance this is not the minimum, and even if it is then proving it will be very difficult.

[@GourmetBurrito]

I wonder what the optimal strategy would be. I'm assuming, as you buy fewer tickets, your hit rate goes down but the amount needed to profit would also decrease.

[@jhonbus]

The optimal strategy is to buy zero tickets, since for every additional ticket you buy you on average lose a constant percentage of an increasing amount of money.

[@magnusv5783]

My dogs went nuts from this video. They must be really excited about lottery numbers.

[@ProgressiveEconomicsSupporter]

Did the numbers of the paper win better?

[@mayonakao2488]

The numbers at 7:50 result in three tickets that each match two of the numbers in 8 20 21 33 37 56. If 25 is counted, which I'm not sure how since I don't know british lottos, then one of those three successes does become a match three. Each success was due to the same digits: 20 and 21.

[@ProgressiveEconomicsSupporter]

@@mayonakao2488 cool, thank you for the effort of figuring out! 😎👍🇩🇪

[@astriiix]

hey does anyone know the name of the song at 0:15? I tried searching it with Shazam but it leads to this weird title that is clearly not the actual song, can anyone help?

[@stevieinselby]

I was looking forward to you ticking the numbers off your tickets in real-time like a bingo pro!

[@jeanskookhoekje7607]

go to dog school to walk your well-mannered dog in a dignified manner

[@paperheartzz]

The gimbal spin was super satisfying.

[@nicklombard610]

Hi Matt, great video. Is there any chance of a diagram of 5 and or x6 number combo's? it would be a great help.

[@Archimedes115]

Imagine this was brought to you by DraftKings 🤣

[@ryansandwich1086]

Why do you have multiple numbers at each vertex in the plane? I feel like you skipped over why you start the problem with the planes.

[@ryansandwich1086]

I do like seeing Sky in videos, though! What a cutie!

[@danielyuan9862]

They have multiple numbers in a vertex because they can, as long as each ticket ends up with at most 6 numbers.

[@declaroh]

Your dog is very cute and clearly uninterested in becoming a youtube superstar. Her expression at 12:44 made me chuckle.

[@Pystro]

The system has the priorities all backwards. A 2-number win is the worst outcome: If you win big, then you are making more money than you spent on the 27 tickets. If you don't win at all, you can just stay at home. But if you win a 2-number prize you have to go back to the lottery place just to not let some loose change go to waste. In reality, I'd want a system that *minimizes* the chance of having a 2-number win, not one that guarantees it. Then again, it is nice to know that if you were planning to play exactly 26 tickets every week, the guaranteed won ticket means that the 27th ticket is essentially free - if you view it as decreasing your chances of low wins (which are now 2,3,... tickets with a 2-number combination instead of 1,2,... of those) while increasing your chances of high wins (for example a 27th chance at winning with 6 numbers).

[@kneau]

00:53 Though I think what's actually being said is, "Come on, let's go" -- I briefly heard & presumed your dog is named Scone. "Come on Scone!"

[@twinturbostang]

13:22: Third ticket, row E. Is that a win also, since you hit a regular number plus the Bonus number?

[@SpamMouse]

The bonus ball ONLY comes into effect if you have already matched ALL of the other balls.

[@twinturbostang]

@@SpamMouse I guess it works differently in America then.

[@sharbanu1]

This video reminds me that I believe all the lotteries in my area don't let you pick anything. You just buy the tickets and get random numbers. To be fair though I don't look into lotteries very much and just get a ticket when one of the 2 big ones get up stupidly high because it's fun to think about it.

[@Abdega]

Are you in the US? Because the 2 big ones (Powerball and Mega Millions) should let you pick somehow

[@Tahgtahv]

@@Abdega Most places probably don't advertise that fact, and some might not have the equipment to do so. They would have to have a Scantron like (probably not actually that brand) machine like Matt used in the video. I'm not sure if this is a requirement for places that sell tickets.

[@Mistah_john]

how many tickets to ensure 3 matching numbers?

[@Mistah_john]

I think 126 tickets

[@WillToWinvlog]

That's cool! I know you said that the winnings would go to the channel. Does this mean that if you lose money, you will skip the next release? :( By the way, have you seen the Mathologer video on the pigeonhole principle? I thought it was pretty nice!

[@aliengrey1708]

Don't they even have online lotteries in UK? They do in Canada. You can set it to play the same numbers multiple times automatically and you're notified by email if you win anything. You can't lose your your tickets or get scammed by the store clerk somehow.

[@henrikskott]

I love the framed comma on the wall!

[@diynevala]

Oh man, that message notification got me TWICE!

[@DarkKnight-ys1yg]

Wacthed the video, great by the way...but how did you come up with the list of 27 numbers?

[@davidcushing4036]

This isn't very helpful but they sort of just appeared whilst on a train journey. The building blocks were swirling around in my head and that was enough to see this method. (First set I actually produced were less elegant than these but use the same principle)

[@Otiomz]

new title: How to go -26x in the UK lottery GUARANTEED

[@elijahberegovsky8957]

Are you going to record the audiobook yourself again? I absolutely loved listening to Humble Pi, and I’m sure whatever you’re cooking now is worth making an audiobook out of it!

[@moobaa420]

MindYourDecisions posted a video just like this like an hour before you uploaded that's wild

[@yin333]

I wish I was good enough at math to do this for the Australian Powerball 😂

[@OutbackCatgirl]

not worth it, trust me. you won't make a profit lol

[@danielyuan9862]

9:39 "If I _happen_ to win any money." Me: mhm, yes, of course

[@georgiapatrick5154]

This video was super chilled and a great Sunday watch.

[@richbuilds_com]

Begs, the question... How many tickets do you have to buy to guarantee a profit? * slips on his horned helmet and runs off cackling into the distance

[@HunterJE]

I can tell you right now the number that guarantees breaking even

[@edwardhuspeka7921]

Hi Matt. Great video and explanation. I've got a similar math problem, and have been unable to calculate the answer. Perhaps you can lead me (or create a video) on the correct direction to get to the answer. The question is: How many tickets can be generated where no 2 numbers are repeated on any of the generated tickets? In Canada, we have 49 numbers and have to choose 6 numbers. At first, you would think ( 49 ! 2 ) / ( 6 ! 2) = 78.4 (or 78 tickets) But wait... not so fast. That's not possible because a single number cannot appear more than 9 times on the total of the tickets. Why is that? Let's take the number "1". On the first ticket "1" is with 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. On the second ticket, "1" is with 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. (and so on and so on until...) On the ninth ticket, "1" is with 42, 43, 44, 45 and 46. This leaves only 47, 48 and 49. That's not enough to create a tenth ticket, and hence those combinations are wasted. So... A better limit would be (9 x 49) / 6 = 73.5 (or 73 tickets) But wait... not so fast. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get even near 73 tickets without hitting some kind of duplication. So, what is the real limit, and what do the results look like? Thanks, Edward.

[@ceselb]

Congrats on the new book, Matt!

[@tobybarker6808]

so how many tickets for three matches? did i miss that part?

[@fumedestroyer8582]

Any systems for thunder ball ?

[@agranero6]

The sound in the beginning of the video made me stop it and search for the message that arrived...for 2 minutes! The same thing happens in K-dramas where everybody has a Samsung with the default notification and ringtone.

[@JellyMonster1]

It used to be almost a 14 milion to 1 chance of a jackpot win with 49 numbers but what are the chances now (something even more ridiculous)?

[@pieterfaes6263]

Is there a standardised way to do this? With that I mean: between a choice of X numbers, the amount of combinations needed to get at least Y numbers matching a selection of Z? The diagram method above appears good for two numbers from a selection of 6 from 60, but for a selection of 5 from 50 it seems not that practical.

[@SgtSupaman]

The Fano planes shown here aren't going to generalize. They are set up specifically to work with selecting 6 because 6 is divisible by 2 and 3, which allows the numbers to be grouped as they are. Trying to select 5 or wanting to match at least some number greater than 2 would require a different diagram. For generalizing, you might look into Steiner systems (of which these Fano planes fall under). They are set up as S(t,k,n) where t numbers match in blocks of k size from a set of n. So, if you are trying to select 5 from 50 and have at least 3 matching, you would use S(3,5,50).

[@Lee-rh1wj]

you slowly losing your mind was somehow compelling , not a reflection on you but on me

[@kevinruggles9180]

Can your planer chart be expanded to hold 59 numbers in one chart? I image that doesn't work for some good math reason. Love your work.

[@luxhey]

I sincerely doubt it. But i have to ask. Was that "14 pages" a reference to DarkViperAu?

[@MrJaspett]

What I really want to know is if anyone has tried to prove if it can't be done with 25 tickets.

[@JulesRulesOK]

To increase your chances of winning more money, only play Lotto when there's a Jackpot Rolldown. This is roughly once a month when no one has won the jackpot. For example, on the 10th February 2024, all the lower tier cash prizes were boosted. The normal payout for 5 winning numbers on Lotto is £1,750, but boosted it was £4,323.

[@Ydegaard]

This just begs the question if there is a formula to calculate the minimum tickets to win in other scenarios. In my country you chose 7 numbers and need 4 correct numbers to win - other countries likely have other combinations

[@nightchicken3517]

How many tickets does it take to have the highest probability to make profit; what is that probability; and what are the proper numbers to do so

[@NathanK97]

if you always win at least one free ticket, if you use this technique every lottery, how much does only paying for less than 26 tickets effect the 5% odds of making a profit?

[@ClaraDeLemon]

I need Matt to make a bluesky account only to hear him say "skeet" out loud

[@e-pluszak9419]

11:37 there you go, 21 and 37 appearing on the lottery, cheers from 🇵🇱

[@captdaf]

In the 1-14 triangle, how does it cover 1,3,5,7,9,11 or similar? Or is that not the point?

[@captdaf]

Wait, right, we're only trying to get at least two numbers out of the six.

[@NathanSpiwak]

Matt! Did you ever look at the extra number, 25?