Powerball Ends Poverty in US

Svartbjørn

Senior Member.
So... this one isnt really hard.. but Ive been seeing it crop up all over the bloody place today and since the math is super easy I figured Id drop it in here for a giggle.

The Story:

The US Powerball is not at 1.3 Billion USD. According to the math, that should put 4.3 MILLION USD in every American's bank account right? Here's the Post:



Now, Im no genious at math, but something was way off.. so I did some back of the napkin calculations and was UTTERLY SHOCKED (/sarcasm) to realize that someone's math was off just a little... several 0s worth of off. The math actually works out to $4.30, not $4.3M.

1,300,000,000/300,000,000=4.3, OR to make it easy.. 13/3=4.3

This post is mostly here to poke fun at the American Education system but also as a demonstration at just how bad people are at taking things at face value and not doing a little work on the backend.. This isnt super hard math, just has a lot of Zeros.
 
yea if i multiply 300 million by 4.3 million i get 1,290,000,000,000,000.00

i dont know what that number is, but it isnt 1.29 billion :)


edit add: apparently its 1,290 trillion. ?
Have you ever wondered what number comes after a trillion? Or how many zeros there are in a vigintillion? Some day you may need to know this for science or math class. http://homeworktips.about.com/od/science/a/Bigger-Than-A-Trillion.htm
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It's almost certainly an example of "correction bait", a type of trolling designed to make people write responses like yours.

It's not something that's widely discussed though. The only definition I found was a bit wonky.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CorrectionBait
Correction Bait, a sister to Flame Bait and Snark Bait, lures you by the urge of correcting something wrong from your inner mind, and draws attention from the people by this progress.
Content from External Source
 
Maybe they're using the original British definition of a billion, which was one million million rather than one thousand million? The maths would be correct.

Ray Von
 
Maybe they're using the original British definition of a billion, which was one million million rather than one thousand million? The maths would be correct.

Ray Von

No. Nobody uses that definition any more, and you'd still need a thousand million million for it to work (a quadrillion).
 
It's almost certainly an example of "correction bait", a type of trolling designed to make people write responses like yours.

It's not something that's widely discussed though. The only definition I found was a bit wonky.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CorrectionBait
Correction Bait, a sister to Flame Bait and Snark Bait, lures you by the urge of correcting something wrong from your inner mind, and draws attention from the people by this progress.
Content from External Source

Yep, I agree with you.. the issue Im seeing though is that people are actually jumping on board with it and wanting the earnings spread to every Citizen in the US. These are average joes and dont have the earmarks of troll replies from what Ive seen. I got the distinct impression that the original post (the image above) was either a troll or another one of those 'experiments' where people create bunk to track how fast it spreads.
 
the issue Im seeing though is that people are actually jumping on board with it and wanting the earnings spread to every Citizen in the US
if i recall, poor people play the lottery more than rich people. (cittion needed) so that would be kinda inappropriate to take from the poor and give to the rich.

although the taxes alone might annihilate the national debt. whats 18 trillion minus 40% of 4.3 millionX300 million?

(edit: had to fix tax bracket and math formula)
 
Must just be the goofs in my feeds then.. Ive got a couple hundred shares popping up and they're all "YEAH LETS DO THIS." Speaks volumes to the kindness of people I know though.
Or their level of sarcasm. I think a lot of people are sharing it ironically.
 
The funny part, is that some people will only buy a lottery ticket when it's pot is super high...
.....but if it's only a 5 million dollar pot.....ehhh, not worth it.

But people like dreams and fame....so they will reach out once in a while.
 
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I've seen this one shared a bit on my feed, but mostly pointing out the hilarious math errors. But some people do need to have it explained still.
 

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No. Nobody uses that definition any more, and you'd still need a thousand million million for it to work (a quadrillion).
My maths = :oops:

That first point though, I still have relatives that go on about the "British" billion, then there's Mock the Week who contacted the UK Treasury after there was some confusion over figures they'd released. The Treasury representative was quite emphatic that they always defined a billion as 1 million million, before finally agreeing to check and confirming that they actually meant 1 thousand million.

Ray Von
 
Very large numbers are essentially meaningless to the majority of people. Any kind of "-illion" is just "lots, too big to count, more than you'd ever need, nearly infinite, etc." The generic term "zillion" reflects this.

People are more familiar with "million" though - as it's a number of plausible familiarity to more people (and "a thousand thousand" is reasonable). But "billion", "trillion", "zillion" are incomprehensible.
 
Regarding the odds of a winner at "best places to buy lottery tickets"....

Different cities have their share of mysterious "this place sells more winner tickets than the rest".
Is there really a physical establishment who produces "more winners" than others ?

Some people think so, and some people wait hours in line at a particular lottery ticket outlet.
Slow down......it's only true because these sites have garnered a reputation for winners because these sites have had a historic winner.
After all, some establishment had to be the source. Are they "more than lucky" ?
No.
These sites (usually convenience stores with Lottery# machines) have gathered online fame for winners because over the years, more tickets are sold at these places, so the odds to win, increase.....but only because the volume of tickets sold there, is very huge.....more tickets are sold there.
So, there is a better chance that the establishment will produce a winning ticket....and not a better chance the buyer of the ticket, will be a winner.

(I know, this is academic...but superstition wins the mind.)



I share a bit of disgust at these lotteries. The States and their lottery commissions know that the non-wealthy, end up handing over the majority of money. Plus this gambling system (and how it's run) is only legal in this format......that in order to organize such a wide system, it must be run through the local or state gov't system. Private companies cannot engage in such a system without financial ties to the State.
 
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