The Powerball lottery is a popular game that offers players the chance to win huge jackpots. To understand how many possible combinations there are, we need to look at the structure of the game.
In Powerball, players choose 5 numbers from a pool of 69 white balls and 1 number from a pool of 26 red Powerballs. The number of possible combinations can be calculated using the combination formula:
C(n, k) = n! / (k! * (n – k)!)
Where:
- n is the total number of items.
- k is the number of items to choose.
- ! denotes factorial, which is the product of all positive integers up to that number.
For the white balls:
C(69, 5) = 69! / (5! * (69 – 5)!) = 11,238,513
For the Powerball:
C(26, 1) = 26
To find the total number of combinations, multiply the two results together:
Total Combinations = 11,238,513 * 26 = 292,201,338
So, there are 292,201,338 possible Powerball combinations. This means that the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292,201,338.