This helps put the IRS computer crashes in perspective. Guess it could happen, Huh?

The odds of winning the Florida lottery are 1 in 22,957,480.

The odds of winning the Powerball is 1 in 175,223,510.
The odds of winning Mega Millions is 1 in 258,890,850.

The odds of a computer disc drive failing in any given month are roughly one in 36. The odds of two different drives failing in the same month are roughly one in 36 squared, or 1 in about 1,300. The odds of three drives failing in the same month is 36 cubed or 1 in 46,656.

The odds of seven different drives failing in the same month (Claimed to have happened by the IRS when they received a letter asking about emails targeting conservative and pro Israeli groups) is 37 to the 7th power = 1 in 78,664,164,096. (that’s over 78 Billion)

In other words, the odds are greater that you will win the Florida Lottery 342 times than having those seven  IRS hard drives crashing in the same month.