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May 09, 2005
Fun Problem
Jesse called me this evening to try out a problem with me. The basic idea: given a function which provides an evenly distributed random number between 0 and 4 inclusive, create a mapping function which will take the output of the first function and convert it to an evenly distributed random number between 0 and 7 inclusive.
Turns out this is a pretty hard problem. He and I wrote up some simulation software in Java to try out some theories. We didn't come up with a perfect solution, but I (re-)learned something about Binomial distributions in the process. Fun stuff :-)
Posted by mishkin at May 9, 2005 10:56 PM