On Mon, Nov 19, 2001 at 05:38:15PM +0100, Ladislav Mecir wrote: > Your second formula is incorrect for any n except for (n = 2 ** 160). > Especially it is incorrect for (n = 2), where it yields twice as much as it > should. OTOH for higher n, (2 < n) and (n < (2 ** 160)), the probability > of a collision may be much higher than your formula yields. The correct > formula should be: > > m: 2 ** 160 > q: 1 * (1 - (1 / m)) * (1 - (2 / m)) * ... * (1 - (n - 1 / m)) > p: 1 - q > > , where Q is the probability that no collision occurs.
Thanks, you are right. I was thinking about having m-i in the denominator, so most parts would conveniently cancel out, but it is really m all the time... So the chance for a collision among n elements seems to be 1 - (m! / ((m-n)! * m^n)) -- Holger Kruse [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the subject, without the quotes.
