Re: Generating Random Numbers with Normal Distribution

On Wed, 2007-12-12 at 09:00 -0500, tedd wrote: > At 3:04 PM -0500 12/10/07, Daniel Brown wrote: > >On Dec 10, 2007 2:28 PM, AmirBehzad Eslami <behzad.eslami@gmail.com> wrote: > >> For some computer-based simulation, i need to > >> generate random numbers that have a normal distribution. > >[snip!] > > > > Unfortunately, because computers are logical, there's no such > >thing (at least as of yet) as a truly random number being generated by > >a machine. > > > >-- > >Daniel P. Brown > >[Phone Numbers Go Here!] > >[They're Hidden From View!] > > Unless the computer is tied to a peripheral that samples nature. > > In my ancient past I worked with a x-ray detector and we simply > truncated to the tens digit -- that was pretty random. Random seeming you mean. As mentioned in the original post, just because the timeline and sample space is immense doesn't make it random, it just makes it difficult to guess. In fact, someone already mentioned the case of computers in casinos that can predict the landing spot of a roulette ball. Cheers, Rob. -- ........................................................... SwarmBuy.com - http://www.swarmbuy.com Leveraging the buying power of the masses! ...........................................................