problem with RandomInteger
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg112175] problem with RandomInteger
- From: Yuri Izrailsky <izrailsk at iacp.dvo.ru>
- Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 06:10:01 -0400 (EDT)
- Reply-to: Yuri Izrailsky <izrailsk at iacp.dvo.ru>
Hello Mathgroup,
I have recently encountered a strange behavior of RandomInteger
function when used inside Module construct. Here is an example:
str1[] := Module[{l, i, j},
l = {0, 0, 0};
i = RandomInteger[{1, 3}];
l[[i]] = 1;
j = RandomInteger[{1, 3}];
l[[j]]
]
In[3]:= N[Total[Table[str1[],{200}]]]/200
Out[3]= 0.345
which is reasonably close to 1/3, but
In[5]:= N[Total[Table[str1[],{1000}]]]/1000
Out[5]= 0.997
looks very strange. What's happening here?
TIA, Yuri.