Was it a freak coincidence or proof of a vast lottery conspiracy? In Bulgaria, the set of 6 winning numbers were drawn twice in a row:
Sports Minister Svilen Neikov ordered an investigation after the numbers 4, 15, 23, 24, 35 and 42 were selected, in a different order, by a machine live on television on September 6 and 10. The results caused suspicions of manipulation.
An investigation found no wrongdoing in the draw or determining the winners, its chairman Konstantin Simeonov said.
"We cannot talk about any manipulation," he said.
The chance of the same six numbers coming up twice in two consecutive rounds was one in more than 4 million but was not impossible, respected mathematician Michail Konstantinov has said.
Link (Photo: Stoyan Nenov / Reuters)
http://www.wilottery.com/lottogames/apick3.asp
6-6-6
I saw it happen live on TV.
That's the thing about statistics. Statistically speaking, unlikely things should sometimes occur, but people will always impute meaning to things which are meaningless. Which isn't to say that it isn't interesting.
Lottery numbers 04-15-23-24-35-42
LOST numbers....04-08-15-16-23-42
The odds in the article about two consecutive draws being the same do seem low. In a fifty number field/six number draw the odds of picking all six is 14 million to 1. So how does the two day/same numbers odds end up at 4 million to 1? It all seems strange to me, especially the fact that 18 people picked those same six numbers for the next draw. Who picks the complete set of numbers that just won?
There's a similar problem about how many people do you have to have in a room before there's a better than even chance of two of them sharing a birthday. Turns out to be around 23, not the 180 or so you might expect. The reason is there are a lot of possible birthdays, but most people think only from their own perspective - i.e. how many people share /their/ birthday, not how many people share /any/ birthday.
There's a Wiki page which explains the maths and which can easily be extended to the lottery figures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem
Skipweasel, here's another way to think of it: Suppose there are 5 million possible number combinations in a particular lottery. No matter what combination of six numbers comes up one day, the numbers the following day have a one-in-five-million chance of being the same.
I suspect that the one mathematician's odds are off because, frankly,many if not most mathematicians know squat about probability calculations.
By the way, reports are that 3 of the same 6 numbers turned up in the NEXT drawing.
Random chance? I don't think so.
sept 6 & 10
4, 15, 23, 2*4, 3+5, 42
6 + 10 -----/---/--
/ / \
/ / |
/ / |
// |
4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42
sept 6 & 10
4,.15,.23,.2*4,.3+5,.42
6 + 10 -----/---/--
.........../.../...\
........../../.....|
........././.......|
........//.........|
...4,...8,...15,..16, 23, 42
sept 6 & 10
4,.15,.23,.2*4,.3+5,.42
6 + 10 --/---/--
.........../.../...\
........../../.....|
........././.......|
........//.........|
...4,..8,...15,..16, 23, 42
or it could have been the incident....