On Wed, 21 Jun 2006, JMcCarthy at mortgagelink.ie wrote:
> Anything lager simply do that again & multiply the first pile by the
> second, or have the second pile as the power of the first.
I'm no mathematician, but I don't see how either operation gives you
a random number. Both operations are commutative and hence must lose
at least one bit of entropy, and neither operation fully maps to the
range of numbers (the latter function mapping quite sparsely) in the
order of your 'random number'.
Just use each pile (or successive 'throws' of the same pile) as a
digits of increasing significance until you have a random number of
the desired order.
regards,
--
Paul Jakma paul at clubi.iepaul at jakma.org Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
Our policy is, when in doubt, do the right thing.
-- Roy L. Ash, ex-president, Litton Industries
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