lottery.png
LastName, FN. (2020). ActivityName. In S. Bowen (Ed.), Math Circle Activity Database. American Institute of Mathematics. https://mathcircles.org/activity/

Winning the Lottery, An Expected Value Mystery

In 2005, while researching the expected value for lottery tickets in various states, a group of MIT students won millions of dollars in the Massachusetts $2 Cash Winfall drawing. Do you want to know how they did it? This teacher led activity starts with a lottery, explores expected value, and finally ties into finite projective geometries.

Activity Guide

This guide looks at the activity in detail and goes into the underlying math.

Leave a Reply