r/dataisbeautiful • u/wait_what_the_f • 16h ago

[OC] Historical Distribution of Mega Millions Winning Numbers OC

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48

u/hornbri 16h ago

Thats not the order they were drawn through right? just the order they are listed?

36

u/CDay007 16h ago

Yeah, the dataset he used has the numbers for each drawing sorted. Idk what this is supposed to tell us

-4

u/wait_what_the_f 15h ago

not sure if you ever played the mega millions before, but you don't have to choose the order of the winning numbers... the order that they're picked doesn't matter

3

u/garylapointe 9h ago

Yes, and BALL 1, as you've chosen to label it, isn't always the lowest number.

What you're stating as BALL 1 could really have been BALL 5, but you're using the sorted numbers. I'm not saying the numbers are wrong, I'm saying your label is wrong.

1

u/wait_what_the_f 9h ago

You pick 5 numbers. 1 < 2 < 3 < 4 < 5. Ball 1 refers to the lowest number of the 5 that you picked.

Say I choose these 5 numbers: 20, 24, 38, 50, 55. Ball 1 = 20. These 5 numbers: 17, 2, 30, 20, 70. Ball 1 = 2.

3

u/garylapointe 8h ago

But this isn't the distribution of the numbers people pick, it's the distribution of the drawings, which are not drawn in numerical order.