[Spridgets] The Lottery - off topic

[Tom]

Random numbers from a machine (aka computer) are not random at all, but
determined by the number generator's algorithm.   For any given seed, the
generator always returns the same sequence of "random" numbers.
Statistically-minded geeks refer to them as psuedo-random numbers.

- Tom

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 12:54 PM, <bjshov8 at tx.rr.com> wrote:

> It depends on what type of ticket the guy bought.  If both people bought
> what we call a "quick pick" where the machine assigns numbers for you, and
> they bought the same number of tickets, then his position in line would have
> affected his results.  The machine doesn't know who is buying the tickets-
> it prints out one ticket with random numbers, then it prints out another
> ticket with random numbers.  Whatever person got the second ticket got the
> winning numbers.  It could have just as easily been the opposite- where the
> ticket with the winning numbers went to the person that cut in line ahead of
> him.  If the person had not cut in line in front of him, the winning ticket
> might have gone to someone in line behind him.
>
> The randomness is that before the winning numbers are drawn, both tickets
> have the exact same odds of winning so it doesn't matter which ticket you
> receive.  And a person's position in line is a part of the randomness that
> plays into this.  If you drive to work one day and a rock hits your
> windshield you could think "if only I had driven earlier, or later, or taken
> a different road...", but if you had taken a different road you might have
> been hit by a truck.  You never know and you will never know because you
> can't take it back and do it a different way to check for a different
> outcome.
>
> The same with the decks of cards- the first deck of cards produces a
> certain card, which goes to the first person in line.  The second deck
> produces a certain card, which goes to the next person in line.  Each person
> has the same odds of receiving a specific card as the other person.  Or the
> card that each person receives has the same odds of being the one drawn from
> a new deck by the lottery officials.
>
> It is only after the numbers or cards are drawn that their significance
> might change.