Probability in Life

By Elias and Eve
Published April 17, 2025

Did you know you have a 1 in 10,000 chance of finding a pearl in an oyster? Before, you have probably heard of probability in math class during a game of cards or buying a scratch ticket.  Some odds go beyond rare. Here are some odds that are more (or less)  one in a million: the odds of winning the lottery, getting struck by lightning, being attacked by a shark, or even injured by… vending machines? 

It is hard to imagine how rare it is to be struck by lightning. Even though getting struck by lightning is rare, you should not make your chances higher by using umbrellas and being in water during storms. The exact probability of being struck is 1 in nine million! Despite that, Roy Cleveland Sullivan was struck 7 different times between 1942 and 1977. Getting struck by lightning 7 times is a one in 1808846 chance. That is really shocking!

Now that you know about lightning strikes, the next thing that is incredibly rare is winning the lottery. So if you just want to win some money off of a lottery ticket, you’re going to have to buy around 23 or 24 lottery tickets. But if you want to win the jackpot, you have a 1 in 292.2 million chance of winning. That's a 0.000000003422% chance of winning.  Now, let's say that you wanted to win really badly, and you bought 1,000 tickets. Your chances are still very low with about 1 in 8,145,060 odds. But amazingly, a man named  Stefen Mandel won it 14 times! He is the real lucky winner.

Did you know there is something even rarer than winning the lottery? You have a 1 in 3.7 million chance of getting attacked by a shark! There are 80 deaths worldwide per year. For comparison, there are about 12 non fatal bear attacks in any year.  Even though these odds are almost astronomically low, people still fear sharks (and bears) when really, sharks should be (and are) afraid of humans.  Year round, about 100 million sharks get killed by people! However, the point is that you should not be scared of sharks because it is almost impossible that they will attack you

Even though most people are afraid of sharks, there are still more things that can cause death, even where you get your snacks. Yes, the vending machine. They have caused 37 deaths since 1978. This normally happens when people tilt or rock these machines. The odds of dying in a vending machine accident are 1 in 112 million. Compared to dying by a shark attack, it is about three times more likely. Make sure you are not trying to get a free  bag of chips, because it might cost you your life.

To conclude, there are some really cool (and not cool) things that can happen, but the chances of them happening are really rare. Different people test their so-called “luck” and sometimes the odds are with them, but really, there is no luck - just probability.