Hi there,

Thank you for a fascinating story that has suspense as well as mathematical information. Please help me understand you better -- when you say that Stefan had to buy every possible number combination, I'm sure you do not mean he alone bought all the lottery tickets that were for sale.

If the prize is big enough, that might theoretically work. Logistically it might be different. If you are talking about the game in which there is a machine and you choose the number that you play, then he figured out that the winning number would be, say, one of the results when you solve for pi?

Please let me know which one you. meant or if it is a third option I'm not grokking at the moment. Thanks again for the great work.

Michael