Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!haven!uvaarpa!vdoe386!tjhsst!jmitchel
From: jmitchel@tjhsst.vak12ed.edu (John Mitchell)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Random numbers
Message-ID: <1991Mar7.193727.1629@tjhsst.vak12ed.edu>
Date: 7 Mar 91 19:37:27 GMT
Sender: jmitchel@tjhsst.vak12ed.edu (John Mitchell)
Organization: Fairfax Area Schools
Lines: 20


   How does TP 5.5 generate random numbers?

   We are using this statement:  r := random;  which returns a
real number in the range [0,1).  Does TP use some kind of formula
to generate these values?  Or is there an internal list of random
numbers that is accessed?  Does "randomize" seed a formula or
find a spot in the list to start from?

   My students are writing a program to approximate pi using the
Monte Carlo method.  Our problem is that we are experiencing a
relatively wide range of answers for pi (+/- 0.2) which is not
improved by running the program with more iterations.

   Thanks in advance for your help.    == John Mitchell==

P.S.  Does TP generate random integers using the same method?
P.P.S.  Would anyone be able to send me a formula for generating
good random numbers that might be substituted for the TP function
call?