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Depending on how you count, famous numbers isn't exactly a well defined category, the number of special sequences will be less than 100 and certainly less than

Depending on how you count, famous numbers isn't exactly a well defined category, the number of special sequences will be less than 100 and certainly less than 1000. Regardless, very small compared to the overall number of sequences.

Closi 6y ago
I’m not great at maths, but back of fag packet let’s say there are 100 suspicious sequences, and there is a 1 in 15 million chance of winning the lottery - that’s 100/15000000 or 1/150000. Let’s assume that there are on average 2 lottery drawings per week per country, which means c400 lotteries. So 400/150000 = 1/375 chance per week, so it’s going to happen every 10 or so years.
- hervature 6y ago
  Your math is correct. I would say two draws per week is wrong but I'm not a lottery expert. Every 10 years may seem surprisingly often, but we are including sequences like 2,3,5,7,11,13 which most people wouldn't find special. Even 10,12,14,16,18,20 (double of this "special" sequence) I think a lot of people wouldn't care as much.
  - Closi 6y ago
    Do you think two draws a week is a little on the high side or the low side? The U.K. has 7 draws per week, and I assume the USA has draws in every state, so it could add up fast. I’m assuming most lotteries are weekly, but they could be much more infrequent. I assume there are other funky possibilities like the crazy thought that someone could get their own phone number as a result, or the sequence 10,20,30,40,50,60 etc so I suspect there are a few other notable sequences hidden in there.
  - mamon 6y ago
    In Poland we have a lottery that draws 20 numbers out of 80 TWICE A DAY. Other lottery is drawing 3 times a week. So a lot of drawings. EDIT: Oh, the best part: we have this "lottery for the impatient" that has draws every 4 minutes :)
    - listenallyall 6y ago
      It's called Keno, it predates most government-run lotteries, and many casinos run it every few minutes. The govt lotteries simply co-opted the game.

Closi 6y ago

I’m not great at maths, but back of fag packet let’s say there are 100 suspicious sequences, and there is a 1 in 15 million chance of winning the lottery - that’s 100/15000000 or 1/150000. Let’s assume that there are on average 2 lottery drawings per week per country, which means c400 lotteries. So 400/150000 = 1/375 chance per week, so it’s going to happen every 10 or so years.

hervature 6y ago
Your math is correct. I would say two draws per week is wrong but I'm not a lottery expert. Every 10 years may seem surprisingly often, but we are including sequences like 2,3,5,7,11,13 which most people wouldn't find special. Even 10,12,14,16,18,20 (double of this "special" sequence) I think a lot of people wouldn't care as much.
- Closi 6y ago
  Do you think two draws a week is a little on the high side or the low side? The U.K. has 7 draws per week, and I assume the USA has draws in every state, so it could add up fast. I’m assuming most lotteries are weekly, but they could be much more infrequent. I assume there are other funky possibilities like the crazy thought that someone could get their own phone number as a result, or the sequence 10,20,30,40,50,60 etc so I suspect there are a few other notable sequences hidden in there.
- mamon 6y ago
  In Poland we have a lottery that draws 20 numbers out of 80 TWICE A DAY. Other lottery is drawing 3 times a week. So a lot of drawings. EDIT: Oh, the best part: we have this "lottery for the impatient" that has draws every 4 minutes :)
  - listenallyall 6y ago
    It's called Keno, it predates most government-run lotteries, and many casinos run it every few minutes. The govt lotteries simply co-opted the game.