On Monday 30 Jun 2003 8:13 pm, Tom Brinkman wrote: > On Monday June 30 2003 11:04 am, Ronald J. Hall wrote: > > If I had a text file that contained the winning Powerball numbers > > in our state for the last 10 years, what would be the easiest way > > to search it for the numbers that occurred the most often. > > Hopefully output to a text file, in descending order by rank? > > > > Can I do that from bash? > > > > Thanks! > > Well, I saw you got an answer, now don't bet on it like I infer > you're fixin too ;) A knowledge, even intuitively, of random > mathematics, theory of chaos, would suggest that past numbers would > be more unlikely to turn up than those in future sets?
Actually if it is purely random then past behavior has no effect on future performance. All numbers are always just as likely to occur, no matter how often they have occured in the past. > More likely > to included? Answer is No to both, but what t'hey, try usin those > sorted numbers, or avoid usin 'em. Tickets don't cost much, but > buyin multiple tickets only increases your losses, not your chances > in any appreciable sense. Worst way to decrease chances is usin the > same number set all the time. Specially if they would'a won the one > time you forgot to play 'em ;> No, because we can assume that the numbers are almost, but not quite random. If they were random then any more frequent numbers would be due to pure chance, but if we assume that there is some other factor, say a fault in the manufacture of a single ball, then that ball might come up more frequently. Here in the UK they also randomly select the batch of balls and the machine to be used. In that case then maybe there is a fault on some balls or machines that cause certain numbers to be more frequent, but the most frequent numbers are likely to be with different ball-sets and/or machines, so going blindly with the most frequent numbers is not going to get the big win, but just maybe you might get more than average three and four ball combinations. Here in the UK the chances of winning the jackpot is 14 million to one. That's an average of 269,230 years of playing once a week before getting the jackpot, and then it's only 50% likely to happen. Miss that and play for another 269,230 years and again its 50% likely you'll win. Of course if you put on 14,000,000 plays in one week then you're more likely to win quicker, but that would cost GBP 14,000,000 and the jackpot is only a few million GBP. It has been done, (in the USA if I remember correctly,) but generating and playing the millions of tickets was very hard, and I imagine all the loopholes have now been closed. For example the winning cartel printed their own tickets and the company now require all tickets to be their own. The only way to win at games of pure chance is to run the game. A strange game; the only winning move is not to play. Ronald, I suggest you generate the list of numbers, and then check them against your big file and see how much money you would have won in the last ten years. Then calculate how much you would have spent. -- Richard Urwin
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