You may think that this is a silly question, but the number of UK lottery players who appear to act as if the lottery balls are intelligent is astounding.

For example, many UK lottery players invest a great amount of time and effort into tracking so-called "hot" and "cold" numbers - those which have appeared most or least frequently in previous draws. The faulty hypothesis here is that hot numbers are more likely to be drawn again than cold ones - presumably because the balls can somehow "know" which group they belong to. Whilst it is often true that some balls are drawn more often than others when you look at a particular sample of results, this is only because of short-term statistical deviation. It is not any indication that the lottery machines are in some way biased or that certain numbers have any real advantage over other numbers.

We can illustrate the fact behind the illusion by considering the mechanics of a simple coin toss. Throw a coin into the air and the odds of it landing as either heads or tails are 1 in 2, which is 50%. If we toss the coin seven time and it lands as tails each time, the odds for the coin being tails after the eighth toss of the coin are still 1 in 2 or 50%. The fact that there have been seven tails after previous tosses of the coin is irrelevant, because the coin has no memory or intelligence.

The same can be said of the UK lottery or any other lottery. Just because one number happens to have been drawn more than any other in previous draws doesn't mean that the number in question is any more likely to be drawn in the future. The odds for any number being selected are exactly the same from draw to draw, regardless of whether you label it hot, cold, Tom, Dick or Harry.

Since UK lottery balls are selected entirely at random, any investment of time and energy into tracking so-called hot and cold numbers is, it has to be said, a total waste. No number is genuinely hot or cold, and numbers are certainly not intelligent, so do yourself a favour and put aside these erroneous notions that waste your time and can only ever lead to disappointment.

Claire Jacobs is an avid lottery player with many big wins to her name, but still chasing her first jackpot. Find more of her Lotto articles at http://www.lottery.co.uk

Source: www.articledashboard.com