Number 42

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

15times drawn · chance expected 8 +2.38σ

4draws waiting · a wait this long: 72% for any number

4.9average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8

18longest completed wait · 92% chance of one at least that long

42 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 15 times in 83 draws against 8.4 expected, +2.38σ. Each draw is independent: after 4 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 42, draw by draw

Drawn 15 times in 83 draws · average wait 4.9 draws · longest completed wait 18 · waiting 4 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 42 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 0.0
2nd smallest1 · chance 0.3
3rd smallest1 · chance 1.8
4th smallest9 · chance 4.7
5th smallest4 · chance 5.6
6th smallest0 · chance 2.5

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 1.3 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

47 7 29 48 51 54

Never drawn alongside 14 of the other 58 numbers; chance expects about 16 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 42 is picked about 0.86× as often as an indifferent choice — 34th 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 above 31 ×0.86

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 42 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2010-10-02	4	2nd	4 42 47 55 56 57
2010-09-18	4	4th	21 23 26 42 51 58
2010-09-04	2	5th	7 15 18 30 42 57

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