games of chance and other goofy things to do with ping pong balls

[David Van De Griek]

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle wrote:
> Over on www.ESPN.com they have this electronic version of the NBA 
> Draft Lottery, which may or may not be as weighted by choice as the 
> real one.  But for fun, I played it 14 consecutive, once for each of 
> the first 14 picks.
>
> Boston got either the 1 or 2 pick only 5 out of 14 times, and most 
> often, the 2 pick.
>
> After all the caterwauling I've endured about people hoping for 
> losses to get this, the real thing had damn well BETTER be more 
> weighed for Boston than THAT.
>   
If you go by the odds for the draft lottery, Boston will most likely get 
the 4th pick.
The odds are:

1st -  19.9%
2nd -  18.8%
3rd -  17.1%
4th -  31.9%
5th -  12.4%

So the odds of getting the 1st or 2nd pick is just 38.7%


-dave