> >If I create a program that randomly draws 6 numbers, its like the lottery. > >According to an article I read in Reader's Digest, if you get a Quick Pick > >- which is six numbers at random - you increase your odds of winning. > > Odds are how many tickets you buy relative to how many tickets everyone > else has bought. Has nothing to do with the mechanism for generating > numbers. Any guesses you make are "random". My guess is that the point of the Reader's Digest article (I haven't read it, this is just my conjecture) is that a truly random (or pseudo-random) number is a better lottery play than a "favorite" number like an anniversary date, your kids' ages, etc. It's not that a random number is any more likely to hit the winning combination. But numbers that are based on dates or ages of a typical family are more likely to be played than a completely random set of numbers; and therefore, a win with a random set of numbers will likely have a smaller pool of winners with whom you'll need to split the payout. Put another way: a set of randomly selected numbers is no more or less likely to hit the lotto than a set of non-randomly selected numbers, so randomness does not affect the likelihood of there being a payout. However, the collision space for a set of randomly selected numbers is likely to be smaller than the collision space for a non-randomly selected set of numbers, which does affect the amount of a payout, in the event of a win.
If this is the case, you are working on the wrong program. A random number program, like the one
used for the lotto game, will give equal opportunity to any possible number. Whereas, you are now
looking to maximize your winnings, when that win finally comes, by picking numbers that humans
would not be prone to pick. That means your program needs to be finding numbers that are
MORE popular to humans, in order to isolate numbers that are LESS popular to humans. This is
sounding more like a massive search of all data and databases on the web, looking to count
occurrences of numbers that have an immediacy to the human experience, while grading out
counting numbers that are more arbitrarily nuetral or even inactive in the human experience, and
after that evaluation is done, simply looking at your tally list of numbers and which numbers occur
less frequently. The more you are able to evaluate whether a number has great or small impact
upon the human mind, the more accurate your final results..... Can you say, WEB CRAWLER?
BUT!! I have good news! I got a great deal on car insurance at Geiko!
And, by the way, Reader's Digest is just a tad above the National Enquirer in credibility, although they
both have big readerships......which should tell you something about them.
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