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Firstly let me be clear, I don't play the lottery or even follow draws, but something going round in my head for some time are the possible results of a lottery draw, The chance is roughly 1 in 13,983,816 but that is also a big odd against any pattern to emerge, for instance, its very unlikely that 1 2 3 4 5 6 will ever occur, for that matter so would 2 3 4 5 6 7 or even 1 3 5 7 9 11 This brings me to my question, is there a way to describe all possible "ordered" results and subtract that from the total odds? Wiki entry

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The result (1 2 3 4 5 6) is as probable as any other. – leonbloy Jan 25 at 20:34
What do you mean by ordered results? – Joyeuse Saint Valentin Jan 25 at 20:35
Are you asking about the number of possible rising sequences with 6 items? If so then any unique sequence can be arranged in a rising manner. Or does the order they actually appear matter? Then out of all the ways to get some 6 numbers (6!) only one is a rising sequence therefore 1/6! of the total results are rising. – Guest 86 Jan 25 at 20:35
I struggle to accept that that an ordered sequence of numbers like 123456 has as much chance to occur as a random group, it feels wrong – peterretief Jan 25 at 20:37
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Why don't you throw a set of three dice a sufficiently large number of times to convince yourself that the sequence (1 2 3) is just as likely as, say, (5 1 4). – Eckhard Jan 25 at 20:40
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One should not be mislead in considering properties of numbers to derive "likeness" of particular lottery draws. Lotteries use numbers simply as a concrete device to make balls distinguishable and bets easy to make.

Were the lotteries use abstract symbols such as $$ \bullet\qquad\times\qquad\oplus\qquad\circ\qquad\ddagger\qquad\nabla\qquad... $$ to diversify the balls, all the numerical "coincidences" would just disappear proving what they really are: psychologically induced illusions.

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I did mention coloured balls, but I get what you are saying, but say we had 49 shades of green added from light to dark in a container, the container gets mixed and I "know" that it will never be randomly restored to its origional state, the word entropy was mentioned – peterretief Jan 25 at 21:21

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