Latest news with #DavidHodge
Scottish Sun
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
I'm a mathematician – the winning formula to scooping the entire £119m Euromillions jackpot TONIGHT
FROM a country mansion to a shopping spree in Selfridges, what have you fantasised about splashing your Euromillions cash on? Winning the £119 million prize tonight would make your fantasy a reality - and Sun readers can boost their chances of scooping the ENTIRE jackpot thanks to maths lottery expert David Hodge's tips. 3 Probability expert David Hodge has exclusively revealed which numbers to pick - and which to avoid 3 Euromillions is played by millions of people - but how do you boost your chances of winning the jackpot? Credit: Getty Dr David Hodge is a lecturer in statistics and data analytics at the University of...
The Sun
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
I'm a mathematician – the winning formula to scooping the entire £119m Euromillions jackpot TONIGHT
FROM a country mansion to a shopping spree in Selfridges, what have you fantasised about splashing your Euromillions cash on? Winning the £119 million prize tonight would make your fantasy a reality - and Sun readers can boost their chances of scooping the ENTIRE jackpot thanks to maths lottery expert David Hodge's tips. 3 Dr David Hodge is a lecturer in statistics and data analytics at the University of Glasgow. He's also been a Royal Statistical Stats Ambassador since 2018, and is a well-known probability expert. He has revealed how to increase the chances of walking away with all the money in the Euromillions game tonight. With millions of us buying a ticket each week, you'll need all the help you can get battling it out against other hopeful players for the huge £119 million prize that's up for grabs. There have been huge jackpots available recently - a record-breaking £208million prize that was won by a lucky Irish ticket holder last month. You pick five numbers from 1-50 and two lucky stars from 1-12, or you can choose a lucky dip - which is when the numbers are randomly selected for you. If someone scoops the jackpot tonight, they would become instantly richer than the likes of Daniel Radcliffe, Dua Lipa or Harry Kane. Here, David exclusively shares his golden tips for picking the winning numbers. Of course, the only real way of increasing your chances of winning is to buy more tickets. Make sure you gamble responsibly and only gamble with money you can afford to lose. Set a money limit before playing. If you need advice, visit or Pick 'boring' numbers Statistically, each number has an equal chance of being drawn, so there is no such thing as a "lucky" number. David said the trick is to pick numbers that players are least likely to pick to increase your chances of keeping the entire prize - and not sharing it among other winners. He tells Sun money: "Any prize could be theoretically shared, so you will want to be the only one who wins if you do win. "So that means you need your numbers not to be other people's numbers. That means avoiding number patterns." David advises players to pick "boring" numbers. Those are numbers that do not stand out in any way. It's more likely that people will pick the top five most frequently drawn numbers, for example, which are: 21, 23, 42, 29 and 17. That's because people are likely to think they are "lucky" and have a higher chance of being drawn. Boring numbers are those which have been drawn an average number of times. Picking 37, which has been drawn a mediocre 91 times, could be a good option. So could 24 and 13, which have also been drawn 91 times, as well as 32, which has been drawn 90 times. "Pick the ones that look boring and that people won't be interested in," David adds. Never choose "overdue" numbers The same principle applies to "overdue" numbers. These are the numbers which have been drawn the least in EuroMillions games. David said players may be more tempted to pick these numbers on their ticket, hoping they will come up in tonight's game. "People might look for numbers that haven't come up very often, because they think they're due to come up soon," said David. "This is nonsense, because past numbers have no effect on what's going to happen in the future." The top five numbers drawn the least are: 40, 18, 43, 4 and 1. Picking "weird" combinations is a mistake Thinking of picking 1,2,3,4,5 because you reckon no one else will? You might think weird number combinations like these will increase your likelihood of not having to share the pot of prize winnings among other players. But you're wrong, according to David. "That sequence - 1,2,3,4,5 - is actually more popular than you might think," he said. "If you think something is a weird combination, it's likely that other people will think it's weird too, and will likely pick that combination too. "That's because your brain holds onto anything that fits some kind of pattern." So if you're picking combinations of numbers like 2,4,6,8,10, or 5,10,15,20,25, the chances are that other people are picking the exact same numbers too. 'I won £1 million on Euromillions - I've spent it on holidays to Dubai and Mauritius' RUTH Breen was on her lunch break when she found out she won £1 million on the Euromillions. Ruth won in 2014, and spent the cash on luxury trips to destinations like Dubai, St Lucia and Mauritius. Speaking last year about her win, Ruth said: " "An awful lot has changed in the past 10 years but then again, not so much. "The win came at the most perfect time ever. It allowed me to reduce my working hours, giving me a much better work-life balance." Ruth now works part-time as a nurse, and spends more time with her daughter doing "fun mum things". Her first purchase following her mega win was a pair of Jimmy Choos. Ruth said: "I nearly cried when I was paying for them in Selfridges because I couldn't believe I was actually able to purchase this and I had the money to do it. 'It was a little bit overwhelming." Ruth still lives in the house she bought just before her win and says most of the new mothers she works with are unaware they are being looked after by a millionaire. Why a lucky dip really could be lucky The key is to avoid number patterns on your Euromillions ticket. That's because it's more likely that players will be picking the same combination as you. Again, if you are lucky enough to win, that means a larger number of players to share the pot with. The best way of avoiding patterns, according to David, is to pick a lucky dip. He says: "Humans are notoriously bad at picking random numbers. "So it's likely that your attempt at picking five truly random numbers will probably fail. "The best thing to do is get a computer to pick random numbers - which is what a Lucky Dip does." A lucky dip also removes the likelihood of becoming "wedded" to your numbers. "The key is not to be biased towards any number," David said.
Press and Journal
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Press and Journal
Aviemore ice hockey club win national title with players aged 62 and 59 in the team
Ice hockey players aged in their 50s and 60s rolled back the years to help a new Aviemore side deliver a stunning national bowl success. Against all odds, Aviemore Avalanche returned from Dumfries as the SIH Scottish Bowl champions in their very first season. And it was a genuine mix of ages which helped them surge to success. An eye-catching 6-1 rout of favourites Dundee Wildcats in the final came at the end of a thrilling weekend where the Highlanders progressed all the way to the silverware without a defeat. They defeated Aberdeen Predators 6-3, drew 3-3 against Kirkcaldy's Highlanders B side, beat Hamilton Hawks 3-0 then their friendly rivals Inverness Hurricanes 5-0 to reach the semis where they saw off Glasgow Mustangs 5-1. It was the first success for the town in the sport for 38 years and involved six players who starred for the original Aviemore Blackhawks and Aviemore Blues in the 1970s and 1980s. The title was won despite the town's previous main rink being closed and demolished in the late 1990s. These days, the 20m x 12m venue, known locally as 'the wee rink' is located at the Macdonald Aviemore Resort. Opened in 2021, it is used on several fronts seven days a week, with a mini closure only lasting until June 10 for as new ice is laid. The team, managed by David Hodge and captained by Dean Ferguson, are desperate to use their success to highlight the need for a new rink in the tourist hotspot within the Cairngorm National Park. Player-coach Kevin Bremner is 56 and a former Blackhawks player, along with Stevie Booth, 59, and Kenny MacDonald, 62. They were bolstered ex-Aviemore Blues players Stuart Gray, 48, Andrew Stewart 51, Chris Helick, 54, who helped the new club, Avalanche, roar to victory. Rinks around the country are under threat, including at Inverness where Aviemore play, with rising energy costs leading to a public appeal for financial support as it battles closure. In February 2021, AGCT (Aviemore and Glenmore Community Trust) launched the successful Aviemore Community Ice campaign, raising close to £200,000 in funds to purchase an ice rink and a marquee in which to house the rink. All profits are reinvested into the rink and help further goal of returning a sport-sized iced rink within an insulated and energy-efficient building to Aviemore. Bremner told The Press and Journal that the club would love to see their success at Scottish level showcase the need for a new purpose-built facility in Aviemore, which would be cost efficient. He said: 'We really want to see a proper ice rink return to Aviemore. 'With it being a winter resort, and with the number of tourists we get, it would be well used. 'It's not only ice hockey players who use the ice rink, but is also used by figure skaters and curling as well as the visitors. 'All the sports happen in the wee rink, but getting a big rink really would make a huge difference to all these sports. 'I know a new rink would not be cheap (to build), but these days, you can build rinks that are so environmentally friendly. 'The biggest expense with an ice rink is power to keep the ice frozen. With advancements on that side of it, we could even get backing just to get some sort of structure put up. 'We could then maybe get a system installed that runs fairly cheaply. 'We're also concerned over the future of the Inverness Ice Centre – that's where we play our home games. 'Lots of people in Inverness are also concerned about that. The nearest facility after that would be in Elgin, but if every single person who plays and trains in Inverness tried to switch to Elgin, there is no way that would work. 'Elgin already have several teams, including juniors, playing out of there – and that's just ice hockey. ' Bremner detailed how an initial plan to have juniors playing the sport locally soon grew into the seniors, who have just delivered Scottish bowl success. He said: 'When the wee rink opened in Aviemore, a couple of us started training the juniors in 2022. 'There were then murmurs between some of the more established players about restarting a team. A lot of the parents of the kids who were playing said they would be really interested, and it generated from that point. 'Around nine months ago, we affiliated the club, and got the guys signed up on the Scottish Ice Hockey register and started the team. 'Us older guys have been part of this success, but that's mixed with younger players who have come into the team over the past nine months, and overall, they have mostly all been playing only over the past couple of years. 'It was a team effort in the tournament – everyone played their part. It was amazing. A special mention though to brothers Ross and Stuart Marr who were influential in the wins.' Bremner admits their recent triumph rocked rivals and offers the Avalanche players every reason to be proud, aided by the 'older heads'. He added: 'Our success would have been a shock to the Scottish ice hockey community, because no one would have thought we would have won it. 'As the weekend went on, more people started us. For us to beat the Dundee Wildcats 6-1 in the final, was unbelievable. 'We thought it would be a very close game – they were a very good team in the tournament, including the group stages. 'There were three guys from the old Blackhawks team and then from the Aviemore Blues, which came after the Blackhawks, there were a few more involved (in the Dundee game), so the ages were from their mid-40s to early-60s playing, 'A lot of us played for Inverness Hurricanes, so we used to go down to the bowl competition quite a lot with very mixed success. 'For a team which has really only been going for nine months to go down and win it in the fashion we did was unbelievable. We never lost a game, drawing only once, throughout the whole tournament.'
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Risk of football pitch-sized asteroid hitting Earth doubles in a week
The risk of an asteroid hitting Earth has doubled in a week but there are no plans yet to build a spacecraft to deflect the football pitch-sized rock. A 90-metre-wide space rock passed Earth on Christmas Day 2024 and was detected two days later by a telescope in Chile. It has a 2.3 per cent chance of hitting Earth on December 22, 2032, data show, almost double the risk level of 1.2 per cent as calculated last week. Any chance of more than one per cent that a rock more than 50-metres wide might hit the planet prompts a global network of experts to discuss the risk. The Christmas asteroid, known formally as 2024 YR4, is currently at the top of both Nasa and the European Space Agency's (ESA) asteroid-risk registers. Nasa estimates the rock weighs almost a quarter of a million tonnes and would explode with the force of more than 2.2 million tonnes of TNT if it were to hit Earth – almost 150 times greater than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. The UK is not at risk if the rock were to hit our planet, experts say, with the at-risk locations including western African cities such as Lagos and Accra, the Indian metropolis of Mumbai, and South American countries such as Venezuela and Colombia. The asteroid could flatten a city and lead to 'local devastation', estimates suggest. A similar-size rock landed in the Siberian wilderness in 1908 and devastated a thousand square miles of forest. Astronomers will continue to study the asteroid until it vanishes from view in early May to learn more about its trajectory, and the threat to Earth. Ongoing observations have seen the risk increase in a week, and it could increase further. However, officials have said that the most likely outcome is the probability of a strike will diminish to zero upon further analysis. The current risk level of 2.3 per cent is roughly the same as pulling out an ace of spades randomly from a full and shuffled deck of cards. Rolling two sixes with two dice is also more likely. Dr David Hodge, lecturer in statistics and data analytics at the University of Glasgow, told The Telegraph: 'Winning the lottery with a single ticket is very very unlikely and the asteroid's impact risk of 2.3 per cent is about one million times more likely than you winning the lottery next week with your single ticket. 'So you'd need to buy about a million different tickets next week to win with a chance of around 2.3 per cent. 'The good news is that this current estimate is just that, an estimate. Plus the fact the projected risk has changed so much in the past week is evidence that we can expect more changes in estimates in the future too. We can hope one of the future updates is to the view that it's definitely missing us.' If the risk continues to rise then a decision could be made before the summer to launch a dedicated telescope to study the rock in more detail, or to start building a rocket to smash into and deflect it away from a collision course with Earth. On Thursday, a meeting of the ESA-led Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG) in Vienna was dedicated to the risk posed by the Christmas asteroid and will now advise the UN on next steps, The Telegraph understands. The priority for the next three months, while the rock is still visible, is more observations and calculations of its orbit to better judge the risk of impact. The most powerful telescope ever made, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which is in space a million miles away, is now also being readied to get involved and to analyse the asteroid's size, composition and speed. After May, the asteroid will not be visible from Earth until 2028, which will be just four years before the projected collision during Christmas 2032. If the calculated risk of collision is not zero by the time the rock has left sight, officials will then discuss commissioning a rescue mission to deflect the rock from Earth's path by crashing a spacecraft into it. Another option is that a custom-built telescope could be made and launched into space with the sole purpose of studying 2024 YR4 in greater detail. Astronomers have rated the threat of the new asteroid as being a level three on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, which measures how concerned we should be about an asteroid hitting Earth. This is the highest level for any asteroid currently being monitored. Angus Stewart, joint head of the UK National Space Operations Centre said: 'We monitor an average of 200-300 asteroids that safely pass Earth every month and the risk from 2024 YR4 in 2032 remains low. 'The UK will work with international partners to continue to assess 2024 YR4 right up until it disappears from sight sometime in April or May. 'After this, if there remains a risk to Earth, the UK will work with the international community to consider what options might be available to reduce that risk to an acceptable level.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
