Saturday, 22 February 2014

Its nearest twin

Shares 4 of 5 numbers (5, 7, 16, 35) with the draw of 25 January 2012 — its closest relative in 405 draws. Chance gave a match this close a 17% likelihood somewhere in that history.

From the draw just before (19 February 2014): nothing carried over. Chance says 56% of draws repeat at least one number.

Sum and shape

The numbers add up to 90 — the 49th percentile of all possible tickets, around a middle of 90. No two numbers side by side. 48% of draws have at least one such pair.

The longest wait in this draw

16 had not appeared for 44 draws. A number waits about 7 on average, and a wait this long was not a signal — the machine has no memory of it.

How many people held it

A line like this is played about 0.9× as often as an average ticket — about as popular as most. At 30 million tickets sold, a winner on these numbers would keep about 1% of the jackpot.

Illustrative model, calibrated to published studies — not live sales.