What is "luck"?

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19 years 7 months ago #13273 by shando
Replied by shando on topic Reply from Jim Shand
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by EBTX</i>
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Next time ... do what I do. Take your dollar and flush it down the toilet.
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Thanks for the advice - actually I feel the same way you do. I was puzzled that the outcomes were not following the odds - according to my calculations. For a minute it looked like a good way to finance more research but then Tom gave me the correct explanation and saved me a lot of needless work, for which I am grateful.

Luck may still exist, it just isn't as prevalent as it appeared.

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19 years 7 months ago #13193 by Jim
Replied by Jim on topic Reply from
Great stuff. Keep up the good work. Remember the money the state gets from idiots plating lotto saves everyone tax payments. I don't know if thats a good thing or even if its true so keep posting your data.

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19 years 7 months ago #13274 by Messiah
Replied by Messiah on topic Reply from Jack McNally
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by shando</i>
<br />In as much as the "magic" of creation of something from nothing is prohibited in the MM, I would expect that "luck" is probably disallowed too.

So can anyone explain this:

On April 6, 2005 there was a winner in the Canadian 6-49 draw. Six numbers between 1 and 49, inclusive were selected by a random process. These numbers matched those entered by one of some 6.7 million entrants. This is not unusual: there were 50 winning entries in the most recent 78 drawings.

Here's the problem: the odds against there being <i>ANY</i> winner for any particular draw was usually 1,000 or higher.

There are 10,068,347,520 unique combinations of six numbers out of 49 (49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44). For the April 6 draw there were no more than 6.77 million entries, some of which may have been duplicates. The odds against there being a winner were about 1,487 to 1. But there was a winner.

Was that luck? If not what?

Does the fact that there were 50 winning entries in the past 78 draws (that is all that I examined) prove the existence of something we call "luck"?

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In your case 'luck' was participating in an endeavor in which you had a minuscule chance of winning - and winning. It happens. It happens with mathematical regularity. It is somewhat random. This is probably why they call it 'Luck'.

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