





                             ( File: EVALUATE.TXT )

             The Lottocheck EVALUATE option - a further explanation.

        A number  of people  have trouble  understanding the  [C]  EVALUATE
     option as it is outlined in the manual, so obviously it is not clearly
     enough explained  there. Here  is an attempt to clarify the concept of
     RANK, using  an analogy  with a football league instead of a barrel of
     45 balls:

     Think of the RANK of the balls as similar to that of a football ladder
     during the  season. Rank  number 1  is the top team. Rank number 45 is
     the bottom  team in a very big league. Lets say you have a theory that
     the teams  with  the  top  5  odd  numbered  rankings  (ie.  positions
     1,3,5,7,9, on the ladder) at any given week throughout the season, are
     most likely  to be the winners the next week! (an unlikely theory I'll
     admit, but it is only to suite the explanation). Let's say you had the
     results of  all games in the previous season, with which you wanted to
     test this  odd (numbers)  theory. What you would do, would be to: step
     through the  results week  by week; look at the league ladder for that
     week; pick  out the  teams that  were oddly ranked from the ladder for
     that week;  then see if they really did win the next week; if they did
     you would  add the win to an acummulating total (tally), otherwise the
     tally would stay the same; then you would move on to the next week and
     do the  same all  over again.  This would continue until you have gone
     right through  all of last years football results. Then you could test
     a second theory (say the Top 5 teams on the ladder ie. RANK 1,2,3,4,5)
     - are  most likely  to win  the following  week. You  would follow the
     above process,  then compare  the "win"  tally with that for the first
     theory, to see which was the better theory. The theory that picked the
     most game winners for a season is clearly the best.

          Now, replace  the 45 teams in the ladder, with balls 1 to 45. ie.
     teams become  balls. RANKs  are still  RANKs, but  rather than the top
     RANKing team being the one that has won the most games, it is the BALL
     which has  been amongst  the prize  winners, most  often.  Instead  of
     having last  seasons results  to test  your  theories,  you  have  all
     continuous past draws up to last weeks lotto prize winners.

          The PRIZES  options is  like picking  the winners by name eg. The
     "Brisbane Bears"  to win.  The EVALUATE  option  is  like  the  above;
     picking next  weeks winners by who ever occupies a certain position on
     the league ladder for the "current" week.

     I hope  this explanation is clearer - its the best I can do. Good luck
     with the teams - I mean numbers.

     

     Yours Faithfully,


     Steven Goschnick, SOLID SOFTWARE.