Though many of us are buying tickets in the hope of winning tonight's $500 million Powerball jackpot, we should do our civic duty and remind everyone that the odds of winning it all are 175 million to one.
And that means it's more likely, at least judging from one sort-of-old but widely cited statistic, that you're more likely to be crushed to death by a vending machine as you try to shake loose a stubborn candy bar.
The supposed odds of such a death? About 1 in 112 million.
What's more, you're much more likely to die from a bite or blow inflicted by man's best friend than you are to have the winning ticket in tonight's Powerball drawing. The National Safety Council says the odds of dying from a dog bite or blow are 1 in 144,899.
Of course, if you don't buy a ticket then your odds of winning (if our math is correct) would seem to be zero.
Tonight's jackpot -- which, of course, may not be won by anyone -- is the second-largest in U.S. history. The only bigger one was a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in March.
Meanwhile, our question is still open.
Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit www.npr.org.
