Number 20

In New York Lotto under the 6/59 + 1/55 · Jan 2010 – Oct 2010 rules — 83 draws, 6 from 1–59 (an earlier era).

5times drawn · chance expected 8 −1.25σ

5draws waiting · a wait this long: 65% for any number

18.0average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8

28longest completed wait · 20% chance of one at least that long

20 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 5 times in 83 draws against 8.4 expected, −1.25σ. Each draw is independent: after 5 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 20, draw by draw

Drawn 5 times in 83 draws · average wait 18.0 draws · longest completed wait 28 · waiting 5 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 20 has a favourite seat — chance gives a small number the low positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.

1st smallest0 · chance 0.6
2nd smallest2 · chance 1.7
3rd smallest3 · chance 1.7
4th smallest0 · chance 0.8
5th smallest0 · chance 0.2
6th smallest0 · chance 0.0

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 0.4 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

52 8 35 1 9 10

Never drawn alongside 38 of the other 58 numbers; chance expects about 38 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 20 is picked about 1.28× as often as an indifferent choice — 13th most popular of 59. 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
Round numbers (multiples of 10) ×1.05

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 20 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2010-09-29	11	3rd	8 13 20 35 41 52
2010-08-21	28	3rd	1 9 20 21 27 52
2010-05-15	13	2nd	8 20 28 52 58 59

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: 20 is drawn with probability 6/59 tonight whatever it did last week.