Fairfield University mathematics professor Nicholas Kapoor bought a lottery ticket in 2016 to demonstrate mathematical probability to his students.
The Powerball number and four of the other numbers from Kapoor's Quick Pick were drawn. The winner took home a cool $100k.
After hiding the winning lottery ticket away, he prepared a replica to show to his students. It wasn't quite the way he had envisioned teaching the subject.
It's a long shot to win the Mega Millions or Powerball. The desire of many is to be among the few who actually put the mega in millions. The ever-increasing size of prizes in recent years provides fuel for such dreams of unbelievable wealth.
Lew Lefton, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Mathematics, argues that lottery games are only profitable for the private businesses that states engage to administer them.
Lotteries are guaranteed to be profitable. Lefton compared the casino's advantage to that of Las Vegas. There would be no "business" if it happened.
According to Lefton, the odds of winning the Mega Millions or Powerball have recently increased thanks to regulatory changes made so that lottery games may sell more tickets.
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