Re: Dice
Re: Dice
- Subject: Re: Dice
- From: Bill Briggs <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 09:11:18 -0300
At 5:55 AM -0500 10/30/04, Dennis W. Manasco wrote:
Random numbers are, by definition, RANDOM.
A lot of people have trouble understanding what random means, and
the consequences. We teach a graduate course here that is called
Probability, Random Variables, and Stochastic Processes, which is the
foundation course for the Statistical Theory of Communication, and
some students have difficulty with the concept "random". They make
the same error that is often made when the discussion comes up on
this list. They apply an inappropriate significance to the
distribution of the outcomes to the events. And they also think that
a big (to them) number of events should give a result close to that
which would be seen from an infinite number of events. This last bit
is a failure to understand the difference between finite and infinite
orders.
That means that, for any random number generator, each subsequent
number generated must be completely and entirely independent of any
previously generated number (and of any subsequently generated
number).
What we call in the parlance, "independent events". When this
subject comes up on the list, many people get caught up in the issues
of selection and replacement, which apply to events that are not
independent (they exhibit conditional probability, or P(A|B), which
is read "the probability of event A given event B").
Unless someone gets taught or works with these notions it's very
common for them to be confused.
- web
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| References: | |
| | >Re:Dice (From: Kevin <email@hidden>) |
| | >Re: Dice (From: Adrian Milliner <email@hidden>) |
| | >Re: Dice (From: Robert Poland <email@hidden>) |
| | >Re: Dice (From: Graff <email@hidden>) |
| | >Re: Dice (From: Emmanuel <email@hidden>) |
| | >Re: Dice (From: email@hidden) |
| | >Re: Dice (From: "Dennis W. Manasco" <email@hidden>) |