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From: js2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag)
Newsgroups: net.puzzle
Subject: Re: > What comes next in the series 2, 3, 5, 7 ???
Message-ID: <787@mhuxt.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Apr-85 13:07:06 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxt.787
Posted: Mon Apr 15 13:07:06 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Apr-85 01:04:14 EST
References: <1635@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 24

> 	I'm looking for a random number generator that generates a
> 	number from negative infinity to positive infinity.
> 
> 	I'd imagine we could work with something like
> 
> 		NEW = TANGENT (PI/2 * (RND(NORM(OLD)))
> 
> 	where NORM somehow maps the OLD random number into whatever our
> 	computer wants as a seed to its RND function, which I assume gives
> 	a random number from 0 to 1.  Then multiply by PI/2 and take the
> 	tangent, which depending on how close to PI/2 we are, yields a number
> 	anywhere up to infinity !
> 	This isn't quite the answer yet.  For one thing, I doubt it's
> 	uniformly distributed.  Also, this answer is from 0 to infinity, and
> 	I'm looking for negative infinity to positive infinity.

    Now he tells us that it's got to be uniformly distributed?  If such
a function exists, the probability of it generating a number between any
two arbitrarily large, but finite limits is exactly 0!  Why would
anyone want a random number generator like that?
-- 
Jeff Sonntag
ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j
     "In the long run, we'll all be dead."-John Maynard Keynes