While it’s fun to dream of the golden jewelry, fast cars, and big homes we would buy if we won tonight’s $1.04 billion Powerball jackpot, we're going to take a second to ground you in reality.
The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot is 1 in 292.2 million, according to the lottery.
According to National Geographic, you are more likely to be struck and killed by an asteroid, meteorite, or comet than you are to win the lottery, as the outlet puts the odds of such an event happening at 1 in 1.6 million.
Sticking with the theme of dying, you are also far more likely to be killed by a bee or wasp sting than you are to match all five numbers and the red Powerball on a ticket. The likelihood of you dying by a hornet, wasp, or bee sting is 1 in 54,093, according to the National Safety Council.
A less gruesome -- and more patriotic event -- that’s more likely to happen than winning the lottery is shaking the president’s hand. According to Business Insider, about 1 in 5,000 Americans are able to shake the president’s hand every year.
Fans of golf will want to drop the lottery tickets for swing lessons as the National Hole-in-One Registry puts the odds of hitting an ace at 1 in 12,000.
The registry also said that a hole-in-one is scored once every 3,500 golf rounds, with 1-2% of golfers scoring one every year.
The classic event, which everyone loves to point out when you’re telling them how you’ll spend the first million dollars, is getting struck by lightning.
According to the National Weather Service, the odds of getting struck by lightning is 1 in 15,300, with an average of 43 light strike fatalities happening every year from 1989 to 20018.
Still, half the fun in playing the lottery is thinking about what you would do if you won, and the chances of winning even a minor prize are better.
The odds of winning even $4 on your lottery ticket is 1 in 38.32, according to the lottery.