Very silly National Lottery related question.

[thebraketester]

feef said:

Theoretically, if you can be sure the balls are identical both in shape, size and elasticity, and everything else is perfect as well as timed to be perfectly in sync, then there's nothing to stop the result being the same

The closest, practical application is in something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q

Where the balls and mechanisms are within sufficient tolerances to ensure consistency of result

It's those tolerances of both physical properties of the balls and mechanism and timing that are crucial

In that video only 1 bounce and 1 trajectory per ball per "collision" needs to be accounted for, and the margin for error is great. The interaction in a lottery ball machine is infinitely more complex to control and predict.

[ferrariF50lover]

944fan said:

The is a book by James Gleick (spelling?) called Chaos. Doesn't cover lottery per see but covers chaos theory in an easy to understand way. Really interesting.

Grateful for this.

[Simpo Two]

944fan said:

The is a book by James Gleick (spelling?) called Chaos. Doesn't cover lottery per see but covers chaos theory in an easy to understand way. Really interesting.

I have it three feet away; never read it... I lent it to my accountant and he took 10 years to finish it!

[Moonhawk]

feef said:

Theoretically, if you can be sure the balls are identical both in shape, size and elasticity, and everything else is perfect as well as timed to be perfectly in sync, then there's nothing to stop the result being the same

The uncertainty principle?