Powerball Generator!

[AnnoyedOne]

My 2c worth.

Mathematically any pick of numbers is equally probable (over time).

Some lottery draws use balls in a cage. Or electronic means. Are those really random? Balls can be weighted (subtly or not) and electronic means may use PRNG to pick numbers.

Even if one picks truely random numbers (e.g. using

https://www.random.org

how do you know that the winning numbers are?

A1

[vaklaff]

(09-23-2024 05:26 PM)DGM Wrote:  Doesn’t that show that random picks coming up with consecutive numbers are less likely than ones which do not have consecutive numbers?

Yes, they are. But that’s totally unrelated to the question if 1-6 is less likely than any other pick. Even the Math Stack Exchange answer you linked tells you that. Your uncle was wrong but I don’t mind if you disagree, there are worse things in the world :-)

[AnnoyedOne]

I'm reminded of a joke told by a high school economic teacher to a class many decades ago.

A physicist, chemist, and economist find themselves shipwrecked on a desert island with one can of beans.

The physicist says "Let's build a fire, put the can of beans in, and it'll explode. Then we'll eat the beans."

The chemist says "Let's put the beans in salt water and the can will rust. Then we can eat the beans."

The economist says "Let us assume that we have a can opener".

IMO everyone is assuming that a truly random sequence of numbers are being generated. Is that true? In such a case mathematics tells us that (over time) the distribution of numbers will be even (equally probable).

A1

[DGM]

(09-23-2024 06:02 PM)vaklaff Wrote:  Yes, they are. But that’s totally unrelated to the question if 1-6 is less likely than any other pick. Even the Math Stack Exchange answer you linked tells you that. Your uncle was wrong but I don’t mind if you disagree, there are worse things in the world :-)

I suppose I will file this under George Orwell’s quote in Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”. At one point I was keeping track of winning lottery numbers in my state, in hopes that I would find a pattern (as roulette wheels over time tend to show a pattern due to wear on the bearing surfaces and the way the ball is thrown). I didn’t win. I think the original post would give me as good a chance as any other method, if I didn’t know that my odds of winning are only slightly increased if I play than if I don’t.

DGM

[John Keith]

(09-23-2024 08:28 PM)DGM Wrote:  I At one point I was keeping track of winning lottery numbers in my state, in hopes that I would find a pattern (as roulette wheels over time tend to show a pattern due to wear on the bearing surfaces and the way the ball is thrown). I didn’t win.

I once wrote a program which picked numbers based on the past year's winning numbers, on the theory that if there were any balls that were unusually rare or unusually common, that would be reflected in the numbers picked by the program. Needless to say, I didn't win either.