Question 1205063
**1. Determine the Total Possible Combinations**

* Since there are 3 characters and each character can be repeated, the total number of possible combinations on a bottlecap is 3 * 3 * 3 = 27.

**2. Probability of Winning for the First Person**

* The first person needs to find 5 specific winning combinations out of 27 possible combinations. 
* The probability of winning for the first person on any given bottlecap is 5/27.

**3. Probability of Losing for the First Person**

* The probability of losing for the first person on any given bottlecap is 1 - (5/27) = 22/27.

**4. Probability of Losing Consecutively for the Second Person**

* Let 'n' be the number of bottles the second person needs to buy.
* The probability of losing 'n' consecutive times is (22/27)^n.

**5. Determine the Number of Bottles for a 1% Chance of Winning**

* We want the probability of losing consecutively to be 99% (100% - 1%):
    * (22/27)^n = 0.99

* Solve for 'n':
    * n = log(0.99) / log(22/27) 
    * n ≈ 0.45 / -0.1823 
    * n ≈ 2.47

* Since the second person can't buy a fraction of a bottle, they would need to buy **at least 3 bottles** to have a 1% chance of winning.

**Therefore, the second person needs to buy at least 3 bottles of soda to have a 1% chance of winning.**