Number 27

In Powerball under the 5/45 + 1/45 · Jan 2009 – Mar 2013 rules — 218 draws, 5 from 1–45 (an earlier era).

18times drawn · chance expected 24 −1.34σ

12draws waiting · a wait this long: 27% for any number

11.2average wait between appearances · chance says 9.0

31longest completed wait · 40% chance of one at least that long

27 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 18 times in 218 draws against 24.2 expected, −1.34σ. Each draw is independent: after 12 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 27, draw by draw

Drawn 18 times in 218 draws · average wait 11.2 draws · longest completed wait 31 · waiting 12 draws now

a completed wait — darker is longer the wait still running — a lower bound, not a finished gap

Where it lands in a sorted draw

Sort a draw and 27 has a favourite seat — chance gives a large number the high positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.

1st smallest0 · chance 0.4
2nd smallest6 · chance 2.8
3rd smallest4 · chance 6.6
4th smallest6 · chance 6.2
5th smallest2 · chance 2.0

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 1.6 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

14 32 31 11 23 37

Never drawn alongside 7 of the other 44 numbers; chance expects about 9 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 27 is picked about 1.22× as often as an indifferent choice — 15th most popular of 45. That changes nothing about whether it comes up, and everything about how many ways a jackpot on it would be shared.

Numbers 1–31 — the birthday zone ×1.22

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 27 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2012-12-06	25	4th	5 19 21 27 33
2012-06-14	2	4th	12 15 23 27 29
2012-05-31	1	5th	1 5 10 12 27
2012-05-24	31	4th	4 18 22

What this cannot tell you

Nothing here predicts the next draw. A number’s history is a record of a fair machine’s past, and the machine keeps none of it: 27 is drawn with probability 5/45 tonight whatever it did last week.