Reply #17: Not True [View All]

[ProfessorGAC]

A combination is a combination. The full combination of 6 numbers is not more or less random. As a matter of fact, in pure terms, it's not random at all! It will be, by definition, 6 integers, with no repeats between 1 and some higher value. That's not a random distribution. Every combination has the same probability of being selected, so the distribution is not a curve but a square.

Combinatorial mathematics can prove this, but not necessary here. It's common sense, really.

The selection of the numbers, by the computer, is done by each value being assigned a pseudorandom value. Think of an Excel spreadsheet. One column is the numbers for the ticket, the second is a column of pseudorandom numbers which change every time the computer is told to pick. Then, the values are all sorted by the pseudorandom number. The first six numbers in the list are pulled out and put on your ticket.

That whole approach is no more or less random than a person, at random, picking numbers themselves based upon a series of coincidental events in their life.

Thus, any combination chosen (even 1,2,3,4,5,6, or the combination an idiot has on his luggage) has the same odds as any other. Since the method of choosing the combination is equally random no matter how it's done, there can be no difference.

So, whoever wrote what you read, was wrong.
The Professor (of Statistical Mechanics)