Lottery table question?

[Orage]

Hey guys! I'd like to get a formula that will give me to most commun number hit by the lottery and the PB numbers too, based on this table:

Book1
	A	B	C	D
1	Draw Date	Numbers	PB
2	11/5/2006	02 19 35 24 28	26
3	11/6/2006	40 17 21 07 49	37
4	11/7/2006	41 14 13 29 16	1
5	11/8/2006	32 07 45 21 26	8
6	11/9/2006	19 10 48 03 21	22
7	11/10/2006	22 31 03 07 14	2
8	11/11/2006	15 46 34 23 40	35
9	11/12/2006	11 27 13 02 31	23
10	11/13/2006	18 09 14 47 42	32
11	11/14/2006	15 26 28 08 43	36
12	11/15/2006	18 21 28 41 04	3
13	11/16/2006	44 41 46 35 05	27
14	11/17/2006	03 05 45 18 13	20
15	11/18/2006	23 11 12 17 10	7
16	11/19/2006	28 16 35 34 03	14
17	11/20/2006	14 48 15 36 09	17
18	11/21/2006	27 14 06 04 05	6
19	11/22/2006	04 09 27 07 32	6
20	11/23/2006	18 04 30 37 03	23
21	11/24/2006	17 09 07 44 20	25
22	11/25/2006	16 09 06 28 38	13
23	11/26/2006	28 09 49 38 29	6
24	11/27/2006	31 32 23 01 26	33
25	11/28/2006	07 23 15 28 36	10
26	11/29/2006	23 48 36 15 31	12
27	11/30/2006	13 36 48 07 11	18
28	12/1/2006	30 25 12 08 21	20
Sheet1

My friends want to bet the most commun number to see if we hit the big one...

Thanks!

 

[The Todal]

You will need to use the Text to Columns feature to distribute the numbers in Column B into separate columns. Then, create a list of all the possible numbers (1-49). In the column adjacent to this list put the formula COUNTIF(A1), copy down. It will now be easy to see which number(s) has played most frequently.

I have to say that this is something of a fool's errand, however. The theory behind your scheme implies that which numbers come up is a non-random event. Lottery management takes great pains to insure randomness. To put it another way, selecting the lottery numbers is what is known in Probability Theory as Mutually Exclusive Events meaning a previous result has absolutely no influence over the next event.

 

[The Todal]

Further thoughts on this...

You could use Conditional Formatting to automatically highlight the most frequently played number. For each of the cells in your 1-49 list, use the MAX() function with Conditional Formatting so the most frequently played number stands out.

From a statistical point of view, one could make the argument that the number(s) most likely to play are actually the ones that have played the FEWEST times. If you assume total randomness of selection, if the population is large enough, each of the 49 numbers will play an equal number of times. Therefore, if some numbers have played far below an average number of times, they should be more likely to play soon.

I'm sure there are some statistical gurus on this site who could do a better job describing the statistics of lotteries than I.

 

[Orage]

I got it! Well, I'll pass these #s to them. Thank you very much

 

[dcardno]

Therefore, if some numbers have played far below an average number of times, they should be more likely to play soon.

No. If the draws are random (and they are) then past draws will not affect the current (and future) probability of any given ball being drawn. One "edge" (if available) is to determine which numbers are least often selected by players, and play those numbers. They will be no more likely to win than any other combination, but if fewer other people hit on the same jackpot your average winnings will be higher than other players'.

This still won't mean that you will have a positive expectation going into the game - just that the distribution of expectations is uneven: players who play common numbers have a lower expection than average (although in aggregate, their expectation is the same) while players who play 'unpopular' numbers have a higher (but still negative) expectation - again, in aggregate, their expectation is the same. The difference in individual expectation is that the aggregate is shared among more player in the 'popular numbers' group than in the 'unpopular numbers' group, by definition.