Logic Puzzles · Billy-B
Logic Puzzle #60
From Billy-B's legendary 1001 Puzzle Collection — preserved on Puzz.com since 1998.
Puzzle #60
In a certain lottery, thirty balls, each one numbered 1, 2, 3......30 are placed in a basket. The basket is shaken, and 5 of the balls are randomly drawn from the basket, and set side by side. The result is a set of numbers in a particular order, such as 14, 26, 2, 9, and 17. If you purchased a ticket that had 5 such numbers in random order, what chance would you have of winning the lottery?
Reveal Answer
You have 1 chance in 17,100,720. The answer can be found by muliplying the chance of the first ball being any particular number, 1/30, by the chance of the second ball being any particular number, 1/29 (since one ball has already been removed from the basket), & then by 1/28, 1/27, & 1/26.
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