Re: Dice
Re: Dice
- Subject: Re: Dice
- From: Graff <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 21:56:26 -0400
On Oct 26, 2004, at 3:39 PM, John C. Welch wrote:
On 10/26/2004 13:28, "Graff" <email@hidden> wrote:
So no, it doesn't seem to be perfect but it's probably good enough
for most applications.
Out of curiosity, what would the std deviation be if the random was
perfect?
A perfectly even distribution would be for every value to show up the
same number of times. In that case the std deviation would be 0.
However, a perfectly even distribution is not, by definition, perfectly
random, or even close.
Well a fairly even distribution over the long term is a semi-decent
indicator of randomness. Of course it doesn't necessarily mean that
the sample is random as you can have even distributions that are not
random.
Anyways, I was just doing a cheap and simple test of the randomness of
the random number function. It wasn't meant to prove that the function
was perfect. As I said, it may be just that the function produces an
evenly distributed sample of numbers in some complicated pattern. Most
computer-generated random number functions perform this way. Creating
a very good true or close-to-true random number function is a very
tough task that many people have spent years studying.
- Ken
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Applescript-users mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden
| References: | |
| | >Re: Dice (From: "John C. Welch" <email@hidden>) |