You are trying to get evidence that there are more bears than wapiti in the Jasper National Forest. Your research assistant, the renowned scientist Monkton Tuesdale, insists there are more wapiti. But you think there are more bears, not because you have any scientific reason, but because you like them more. Monkton calls you a fool.
To prove you're right, you set up a fenced area in the forest with a pressure pad at the gate that can measure if a bear or a wapiti enters the area. In the center of the area, you place a large pile of apples.
After leaving the site for 24 hours, you return to find that 63 apples are gone. You know from previous research that bears eat three apples per visit while wapitis only eat one, so you write down in your notebook: 3·b + 1·w = 63. You check the pressure plate computer and see that 29 animals have entered the area so you write down: b + w = 29.
How many bears and how many wapitis entered the fenced area? And who is the fool, you or Monkton?
Explorers who know math know that playing the lottery is dumb. The chances of winning are almost always lower than the amount you win. But today, January 12, 2016, the winning amount is $1.5 billion! Even after taxes, the odds are in your favor because there's a 1 in 292 million chance of winning. However, if there are two or more winners and you have to split the pot, the odds then become dumb again.
So this math-wise explorer is not playing the lottery and did not buy a ticket. But if he did, he would have picked these five white-ball numbers: 12, 13, 36, 43 and 57 and for the red power ball: 5.
Let's see if he regrets not buying a ticket worth over a billion dollars!
UPDATE: Upon further reflection, if those numbers DO win, I'm going to feel like an idiot and I hate that feeling! So I bought a single ticket with those numbers. And just to make it more fun, I'll share the money with anyone who can tell me the exact number of possible tickets in the Powerball. The rules are: all five white balls (1 to 69) have to match, but they can be in any order, and the red ball (1 to 26) has to match. Good luck!
