Number 2

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

6times drawn · chance expected 8 −0.89σ

11draws waiting · a wait this long: 34% for any number

12.2average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8

30longest completed wait · 20% chance of one at least that long

2 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 6 times in 83 draws against 8.4 expected, −0.89σ. Each draw is independent: after 11 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 2, draw by draw

Drawn 6 times in 83 draws · average wait 12.2 draws · longest completed wait 30 · waiting 11 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 2 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 smallest6 · chance 5.5
2nd smallest0 · chance 0.5
3rd smallest0 · chance 0.0
4th smallest0 · chance 0.0
5th smallest0 · chance 0.0
6th smallest0 · chance 0.0

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 0.5 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

8 42 45 48 53 3

Never drawn alongside 33 of the other 58 numbers; chance expects about 35 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 2 is picked about 1.34× as often as an indifferent choice — 6th 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
Numbers 1–12 — day and month overlap ×1.10

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 2 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2010-09-08	30	1st	2 3 21 25 45 53
2010-05-26	2	1st	2 8 14 33 34 57
2010-05-19	7	1st	2 4 9 13 26 45

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