Andrew Jorgensen wrote:
This comes up every month at PLUG (for door prizes) so I thought I'd ask here.
What's an easy to remember way to generate a random number between 1 and some
given number. Language doesn't matter so long as the code is easy enough for
someone to remember the entire thing and type it up at the drop of a hat.
Go, lazylist, go!
$ irb
>> rand <your number here>
<your random number here>
Add 1 in your head if you want between 1 and N instead of 0 and N-1. Or
do you mean a way without a computer? In that case grab lg(N) people and
have them each flip a coin, repeat if you get a number bigger than N.
Expected number of trials is between 1 and 2.
--
Hans Fugal ; http://hans.fugal.net
There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the
right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
-- Johann Sebastian Bach
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