Lotto number groups and predictions?

[Brad1m]

Hey Guys;

I have just been messing around with excel and wondered if it was possible to build a lotto number prediction spreadsheet? Times between groupings and regularity that certain numbers will draw over "lets say" 200 draws...

I understand the odds are stacked against any truly accurate forecasts but thought it might be worth asking if anyone would know how to do this?

 

[Peter_SSs]

Welcome to the MrExcel board!

This is not something I'm 'in to' but there have been quite a few posters who have asked about this sort of thing. I suggest you use the SWearch facility in the blue bar at the top of the page and search for "lotto". That should give you some places to look and perhaps a starting point for what you want to achieve.

More specific questions are likely to get faster/better responses.

 

[Ruddles]

I have just been messing around with excel and wondered if it was possible to build a lotto number prediction spreadsheet? Times between groupings and regularity that certain numbers will draw over "lets say" 200 draws...

Let me save you the time and effort. No, it's not possible to predict lotto numbers. They are effectively random and therefore unpredictable. Even if you have a complete history of all the numbers drawn to date, that would tell you absolutely nothing about what was likely to happen in the future.

 

[Brad1m]

Let me save you the time and effort. No, it's not possible to predict lotto numbers. They are effectively random and therefore unpredictable. Even if you have a complete history of all the numbers drawn to date, that would tell you absolutely nothing about what was likely to happen in the future.

Thanks for the heads up Ruddles, I understand that it's not possible to accurately predict anything like this.

To have a 99.9% degree of certainty that your lotto (pick-6) ticket (with 6 numbers) will come out a winner, you would have to play it for over 69 million consecutive drawings! At a pace of 100 drawings a year, it would take over 690,000 years!

I'm more interested in how to use excel to set up the formulas necessary.
N = log(1-DC) / log(1 - p)

DC: degree of Certainty
p: probability
N: Number of Trials.

Then of course there is the time or dates that these numbers appear or get drawn.

 

[Brad1m]

Looks like I may have bitten off more than I can chew.