Here’s a real-world comparison of just how slim your Powerball chances are

1 in 292,201,337.

Those are your chances of hitting tonight's $1.5-billion Powerball jackpot, the largest in US history.

While we may understand those odds intellectually, chances are you can't fully appreciate them.

Human brains simply aren't equipped to handle that kind of size.

It helps to have a more grounded explanation.

And for that, we turn to the fine folks at FiveThirtyEight, whose statistical expertise couldn't be more valuable than during a national sensation like the lottery.

After some back-of-the-envelope math, FiveThirtyEight lifestyle writer and self-proclaimed lottery fanatic Walter Hickey arrived at this sobering conclusion:

For reference, that's about 1,000 times narrower than a single human hair. ($2,000 just for a hair-width of luck!) Or, to put it another way, it's about as wide as 5 strands of DNA arranged side by side.

In any case, it's such a narrow margin that you can't even see it with your naked eye.

All of that is irrelevant, of course, with life-changing wealth just five plastic balls away. We've even provided a blueprint for how to spend the first awestruck moments after your winning numbers are announced.

Hint: Do nothing.

SEE ALSO: Inside 'El Gordo', the world's largest lottery that's routinely worth billions

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