Number 55

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

9times drawn · chance expected 8 +0.20σ

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

9.0average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8

29longest completed wait · 33% chance of one at least that long

55 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 9 times in 83 draws against 8.4 expected, +0.20σ. Each draw is independent: after 4 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 55, draw by draw

Drawn 9 times in 83 draws · average wait 9.0 draws · longest completed wait 29 · 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 55 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 smallest0 · chance 0.0
3rd smallest0 · chance 0.0
4th smallest1 · chance 0.3
5th smallest1 · chance 2.5
6th smallest7 · chance 6.2

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 0.8 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

40 43 52 6 11 19

Never drawn alongside 25 of the other 58 numbers; chance expects about 27 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 55 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 55 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2010-10-02	11	4th	4 42 47 55 56 57
2010-08-25	10	6th	9 12 26 49 52 55
2010-07-21	3	6th	22 28 35 39 52 55

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