On Wednesday 21 June 2006 14:26, Proinnsias Breathnach wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 21, 2006 at 02:16:25PM +0100, Paul Mc Auley wrote:
> > If you have a stopwatch on your watch (doesn't everybody?) which does
> > 1/100 of seconds? Simply hit start, count to 10 and hit stop, the 100ths
> > should be reasonably random, (no?)
> Not really - as a kid I could reliably stop the 100ths on the casio
> digital in a consistent place (often 00:00:03) ... so, if you've got
> good reactions, and a very consistent 'twitch' you'll probably end up
> with the same number (maybe off-by-one) more often than not.
Hence the "count to 10" piece.
If you just start-stop your results will be weighted around a certain
value, on the other hand if you lengthen the stop start period, it
makes least significant digits, well less significant.
Paul
Maintained by the ILUG website team. The aim of Linux.ie is to
support and help commercial and private users of Linux in Ireland. You can
display ILUG news in your own webpages, read backend
information to find out how. Networking services kindly provided by HEAnet, server kindly donated by
Dell. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds,
used with permission. No penguins were harmed in the production or maintenance
of this highly praised website. Looking for the
Indian Linux Users' Group? Try here. If you've read all this and aren't a lawyer: you should be!
