Powerball Jackpot Redistribution Math
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About
Powerball Jackpot Redistribution Math refers to an equation that circulated around Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit during early 2016 when the jackpot of the American Powerball lottery was growing to an all-time high. The equation incorrectly divides the jackpot by the population of the United States, resulting in an answer that suggests that the total amount of the lottery's jackpot is equal to more than 4.33 million dollars for each resident.
Origin
The image's true origin is unknown, but the first recorded posting was by the Instagram user esteyban, who later deleted the post. While the mathematics is attributed to "Philipe Andolini," the identity of that person is unknown. Esteyban later reinstated the meme with a 50% opacity over an image of Steve Harvey, as a reference to the actor's "Miss Universe" gaffe, with the text (sic throughout): "I'm willing to live with my mistakes. I guess me and Steve @iamsteveharveytv have something in common. Lol We both can donate $4.33 to help the cause of #poverty and #homelessness. Sometime is takes a little humility and humor to start a conversation about an improtant topic. God bless and good luck to everyone on the next #powerball drawing. #oops #lottery #lotto #mvmntbk."
Precursor
The mathematics in the image are very similar to an image macro that circulated in July of 2015 that featured an image of Giorgio A. Tsoukalos of Ancient Aliens. That image, which was posted to Imgur accompanied by screenshots of an ensuing "Who's on First" type of conversation, was meant to parody the cost of Obamacare, and received 779,709 views on the image sharing site.
Spread
After its original posting by esteyban, the image was posted to Facebook on January 11th, 2016 by the musician Livesosa, who added a watermark on top of esteyban's. That image was shared more than 1.08 million times in less than 24 hours. The popularity of the image was then written about in the mass media, including on Snopes, Gizmodo, and Time.
Search Interest
External References
[1] Instagram – esteyban's photo
[2] Facebook – Livesosa's photo
[3] Imgur – 1 million dollars to 300 million people is only 300 million dollars
[4] Snopes – A Tax on People Who Are Bad at Math
[5] Gizmodo- Powerball Math: $1.3 Billion Divided By 300 Million Is Actually $4.33
[6] Time – More Than 800,000 People Shared This Mathematically Inept Powerball Post
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