Eli5 Is there a rule in statistics where choosing the same number X times in a row decreases each time you choose that number?

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Was watching a podcast recently where a girl called another girl dumb for choosing all 6 for a lottery ticket saying that after one 6 is chosen, the probability of each subsequent 6 being chosen decreases. I.e you’re better off choosing 10 random numbers than 10 6’s.

The other 2 in the podcast called the girl an idiot because each six is chosen separately. So the probability of arriving at all 6 is the same as any other combinations. This seems to make sense to me. Rolling 10 dice, the probability of one 6 doesn’t magically effect the other result of the other di.

However I seem to vaguely remember being taught something similar to the supposedly idiot girl when I was a kid.

So basically, who’s right and why?

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9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I think if they allow the person to select that sort of number set, then the game is made to have that as a possibility.

If once the lottery draws a 6, then if they draw from the same dish and there’s no 6 in there, then it won’t come up again, which also means that when they create the ticket you can’t select 6 twice. So the fact that you can select 6 more than once sounds like they draw from different dishes for each digit. If that’s the case, then the chance of 6 coming up is the same for each independent draw. Therefore the chance of 66666 coming up is the same as 12345 coming up.

You can select 1-2-3-4-5 as your lottery number for years and people will tell you you’re crazy because the chances of it coming up are so low. It’s the same chance as 12-19-38-54-7

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