So a co-worker was talking about someone’s stupid plan to always play the previous winning lotto numbers. I chimed in that I was pretty sure that didn’t actually hurt their odds. They thought I was crazy, pointing out that probably no lottery ever rolled the same five-six winning numbers twice in a row.
I seem to remember that I am correct, any sequence of numbers has the same odds. But I was totally unable to articulate how that could be. Can someone help me out? It does really seem like the person using this method would be at a serious disadvantage.
Edit: I get it, and I’m not gonna think about balls anymore today.
In: Mathematics
You are asking about dependent probability.
What are the odds of picking 3 winning numbers (1-10) in order?
1 in 1000
What are the odds of picking tomorrow’s numbers?
1 in 1000
What are the odds that I will pick win the same numbers two times in a row?
1 in 1,000,000.
What tomorrow’s lottery numbers are is independent of yesterdays.
However, since with the lotto, it’s like 1 in 100 million chance, it’s probable we won’t see this happen in our lifetime. 150 draws a year is not av lot of attempts to hit one in 10 million billion.
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