The key is that although the numbers and colours are inherently linked (i.e. each ball has a number and a colour) the event of picking out a number is completely separate from the event of picking out a colour.

If you were talking about colours then yes you would be correct in going for one of each.

But the BBC are talking about numbers. Colours don't really have a say. Imagine they were all white ping pong balls, does this change the probability of a 10 or a 37 being picked?

All this talk of probability is a fine link to:



LOLCATZ!

ROFL!

So the way I'm seeing this now is this:

Yes, it makes the other colours more likely to be picked however, this is inconsequential as if you took the colours away it still leaves you with 48 numbered balls, and it's the numbers that matter.

So if I take mars-bar-man's example, if 45 balls were green and 4 were blue, then yes it's more likely the ball that will come out will be green, but in reality this doesn't matter as you're trying to match the number, not the colour, and if you go by numbers then each number has an equal chance of being picked?

So you should actually treat the numbers and the colours as separate entities?

(Hmm... the quote button doesn't get your first paragraph?)

Yes... see my last post

Pesky hobbitses... changing their postses.

I think I finally have this sorted in my head. Thank you all!

Yay

You were getting me confused half way through and I was beginning to doubt myself

And now you know why I didn't take maths any further after I got a "B" at GCSE.

Hate to burst your bubble, there's 49 balls in the lotto We've removed one, hence the 1/48[/quote]

Ah okay.

I don't play.