Parse Tree wrote:
<snip>
>>>>Even though statistically you can expect 50% on either side of a coin
>>flip, coin flips CAN be rigged. I know, I've done enough coin flipping.
>>Say you want heads all the time, just before you get the coin, flip it
>>over to tails and every time you flip (and just let it land instead of
>>catching it and then slapping it down on the back of your hand), ou well
>>get heads all the time.
>>>>Granted this isn't possible with a computer program (unless you rigged
>>the program, too). A better example would be a properly programmed
>>number randomizer (which could be modified for coin flip, just take a
>>six sided die and assign even numbers to heads (or tails) and odd
>>numbers to tails (or heads).
>>>>If you want fixed results, use a person.
>>If you want true to life randomizer (that can't be fixed by Joe
>>average), use a computer program.
>>> Computer's can only generate pseudo-random numbers. This is based on an
> initial seed number, and rather predictable, if you know the seed and the
> algorithm.
True, but it's more reliable then a real coin flip, and the better the
algorithm (say from encryption software like PGP (which can make a
random 4096 byte key) the more "random" it is. Once you get the program
going, you need increasingly complex formulas to be able to predict the
next number to come up. Both dice and coins can be fixed (as can
programs), but the ones doing the testing are less likely to have the
programming knowledge to fix the program (unless the testers are the
programmers, in that case I wouldn't trust their data). What you do in
real life (flipping the coin or rolling the dice) isn't truly random,
either. If you Take into account all the variables and giving them
weighted values, you can produce a math formula for each individual (and
with a large enough sample, write a formula that could hold true for the
general population) that rolls a die and with some real measure of
accuracy, predict dice rolls, wheel spins, and the like.
Ever seen that movie with Al Paccino and Tom Cruise (I think it was
those two) where Al Paccino was playing Tom Cruise's characters older
brother (but he was an idiot savant, accurately gave the amount of
matches in a box of wooden matches as it fell to the floor, spilling
them)? That there is true mathmatical genius (as well as a good eye and
memory). Just about everything that happens can be formulized properly
and accuratly when all variables are accounted for (it's just accounting
for all those variables that can be a bitch).
--
Joseph A Nagy Jr
Founder and Partner
Joseph A Nagy Jr Enterprises
http://jan-jr-ent.netfirms.com
US2002023638
http://www.neopets.com/refer.phtml?username=jnagyjr
Purgatory is where Windoze users go when they
die so they can figure out Linux and ascend into
whatever higher plane one believes in.
