Jerry, What you thought is called Monte Carlo 'simulation', and you are correct. You are also correct that this doesn't have much to do with allocating things to buckets. This is where I'm confused also. Randomly allocating things to buckets is called 'random (or Monte Carlo) sampling', but the reason for randomizing it is so that each item has the same probabilities of landing in any given bucket. From the description of the problem (deleted several days ago), I had the impression that the criterion was that the totals in each bucket approximate the predetermined goals as closely as possible, in which case there is no need for randomization. If you want each bucket to contain, not just the desired total, but a representative cross section of the whole variety of items, then you do need to do random sampling. And when you do that, no two runs will be alike. Dan
> From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 19:06:15 -0400 > Subject: RE: [NF] Looking for name of algorithm > > > Malcolm, > > It is very closely linked with something called the "Monte Carlo > > Method" of sampling (even though you are distributing no sampling) > > but the concepts are the same. > > Now I'm confused. I thought Monte Carlo was estimating a distribution > by running (or simulating) the function many times and generating a > set of results. This doesn't strike me as a particularly useful way > to allocate results evenly to buckets, especially if you already have > the actual distribution. > > -Jerry --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html --- _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
