Hi, I am WasPentalive and I use C to create small programs to explore randomness and other interesting subjects. For example, I had heard that the chances of winning the CA lottery was the same as flipping a coin Heads or Tails 25 times in a row. I wrote a C program to flip coins until that streak was accomplished.

  • WasPentaliveOP
    2•1 year ago
    
mx:    1 heads:         0 tails:         1 Distance:         1
mx:    2 heads:         0 tails:         2 Distance:         1
mx:    3 heads:         0 tails:         3 Distance:         1
mx:    4 heads:         0 tails:         4 Distance:         1
mx:    5 heads:         1 tails:        10 Distance:         7
mx:    6 heads:        24 tails:        29 Distance:        42
mx:    7 heads:       135 tails:       146 Distance:       228
mx:    8 heads:       135 tails:       147 Distance:         1
mx:    9 heads:       135 tails:       148 Distance:         1
mx:   10 heads:       728 tails:       748 Distance:      1193
mx:   11 heads:      8478 tails:      8395 Distance:     15397
mx:   12 heads:     17542 tails:     17521 Distance:     18190
mx:   13 heads:     26467 tails:     26363 Distance:     17767
mx:   14 heads:     28703 tails:     28547 Distance:      4420
mx:   15 heads:     43479 tails:     43254 Distance:     29483
mx:   16 heads:     43479 tails:     43255 Distance:         1
mx:   17 heads:     43479 tails:     43256 Distance:         1
mx:   18 heads:    225204 tails:    224556 Distance:    363025
mx:   19 heads:    230017 tails:    229673 Distance:      9930
mx:   20 heads:    524886 tails:    525560 Distance:    590756
mx:   21 heads:    524887 tails:    525560 Distance:         1
mx:   22 heads:   4357778 tails:   4351432 Distance:   7658763
mx:   23 heads:   5071370 tails:   5064622 Distance:   1426782
mx:   24 heads:   5071370 tails:   5064623 Distance:         1
mx:   25 heads:   5071370 tails:   5064624 Distance:         1
 Average distance    :  405439.75 
 Ratio heads to tails:       1.00

    For each landmark run the number of flips (heads and tails) is recorded. Distance is the number of flips since the last landmark run, where distance is 1 it means that another head or tail was flipped to continue an already landmark run. To reach the goal of 25 flips of the same side - one had to flip 10,135,994 coins.

    So yeah. Your chances of winning the Lottery are about the same whether you buy a ticket or not.

    • Baldur Nil
      1•1 year ago

      I wonder what’s the best library in C to draw graphs about these stuff. If you use Python for that (such as Google Collab) that would be pretty straightforward.

      • WasPentaliveOP
        1•1 year ago

        I would probably have my program print the data in CSV format and then import it into Libra Calc (LibraOffice Spreadsheet) for all kinds of graphing.