Correction: The cost of purchasing every possible ticket combination was miscalculated in the previous version of this post. It has been changed to the correct value.

Every so often, the news media becomes all abuzz when a particular lottery jackpot starts to grow really large.  Right now is one of those times, with no winner on Saturday putting the jackpot for Wednesday’s drawing at around $1.3 Billion, the largest lottery jackpot in US History.

My students sometimes ask me, as a math teacher and a guy who “knows numbers,” whether I play the lottery. Usually I just smile and tell them I buy the occasional scratch ticket for the fun of it, but almost never anything beyond that. It would require a “special occasion” or a “huge jackpot” for me to consider buying one.

This certainly seems like one of those special occasions.

To understand how to approach this question from a math standpoint, we first need to understand the probability of winning.

Continue reading Mathematical Musing: Will I be Buying a Powerball Ticket? →