| TOP |
Short short with English summary
| 賭博 12月中旬の或る夜、暗い寝室のデジタル時計をフト見ると、「111111」（１１時１１分１１秒）だった。その翌日の夜また同じ頃時計をみると、「123456」だった。 私は、これは、どうしても、「ジャンボ宝くじ」を買わねばならないと思った。しかし、師走の雑用に追われ、買いそびれた。 そこで、この幸運の兆し、「ジャックポット」「大当たり」現象をもう一度考えてみた。そもそも、デジタル時計が示す６桁の数列にはどのくらい幸運がありうるか？ 100000・101010・123123・・・・。100001だって大当たりという人も有るだろう。 だいたい、我々は十進法を使っているから、こういう数列に縁起を担いだりする訳であって、コンピューターは、二進法で数えている。0と1しかない。大当たりばかりだ。 宝くじと言えば、十枚一組で買うことが多い。その時、連番で十枚買うか、あえて、バラバラ不揃いで買うかが、問題となる。この場合には、はっきりとした優劣がある。当たる確率は、どの券・どの番号でも全く同じであり、連番の方が前後賞も当たる可能性があるので、バラバラよりも、はるかに有利である。しかし、連番では、はずれが瞬時にわかるので、ワクワクの楽しみがない。そこで、確率としては馬鹿馬鹿しく不利で、意味のない、バラバラ十枚を買う人の方が多い。 競馬・競輪・競艇・・株・先物・・賭博にのめりこむ人は多い。事に依ると、彼らが引き付けられるのは、大当たりを求めてではなくて、性的衝動にもにた、ワクワク感なのかも知れない。英国王室が競馬支持者大ファンであり、日本でも天皇賞がある。これも、同じ理由だろう。 Gambles Last year, in the middle of a night in December, I saw my digital clock in my dark bedroom. It was 11 o’clock 11 minutes 11 seconds. “111111”. The following night, when I saw the clock, it was “123456”. I had a strong feeling that I must buy the year’s last lottery which use to be the most attractive lottery with the highest prize money in Japan. But I forgot to buy the lottery. To comfort my lost chance, I looked closer at the jack pot shown by my digital clock. How valuable could the six numbers of the jack pot be? “100000” ”101010” ”123123”, I found so many lucky numbers. There might be someone who yells “Jack Pot” hitting even “100001”. Since we daily use the decimal system therefore we have such jack pots. If we use the binary system as the computers then there are only zeros and ones. We would have only the jack pots. By the way, to buy the lottery in Japan, people often purchase ten sheets as a set. When we buy ten sheets then it is a heavy decision if you buy one serial number as a set or arbitrarily disordered numbers. Actually, here, there is a definitive difference in these alternative buying manners. Since the probability hitting the jack pot is just equal for each sheet then it is absolutely better to buy sheets of a series. The Japanese lotteries have extra prize being given to the sheets one number off from the winning one. A set of ten sheets with arbitrarily disordered numbers has no chance to receive these extra prizes. But most of the people prefer the disordered ten sheets. If your sheets were serially ordered numbers you might find that you lost the lottery in a moment. You would have no time to enjoy the expectation and the suspense. Many of us like the gambles. Some of them are simple ones as horse racing, dog racing, and bull fighting. The stock trade and futures transaction are also gambling since they are driven without any rational grounds. Perhaps the gambling attracts people not because of the scarce chance of hitting jack pot but the gambling gives such pleasure as sexual urge, excitement and suspense. The British royal family is known as a horse racing fan and in Japan we have the Emperor Cup. |
| TOP |