Saturday, 22 August 2015

Its nearest twin

Shares 4 of 5 numbers (12, 25, 28, 42) with the draw of 4 April 2014 — its closest relative in 1,955 draws. Chance gave a match this close a 32% likelihood somewhere in that history.

From the draw just before (21 August 2015): 25 carried over. Chance says 48% of draws repeat at least one number.

Sum and shape

The numbers add up to 114 — the 55th percentile of all possible tickets, around a middle of 110. No two numbers side by side. 40% of draws have at least one such pair.

The longest wait in this draw

42 had not appeared for 32 draws. A number waits about 9 on average, and a wait this long was not a signal — the machine has no memory of it.

How many people held it

A line like this is played about 1.2× as often as an average ticket — more popular than most. At 30 million tickets sold, a winner on these numbers would keep about 3% of the jackpot.

Illustrative model, calibrated to published studies — not live sales.