Re: random numbers

On 2025-09-15 20:10, Lawrence Velázquez wrote:
> RANDOM % 10 produces the ones digit of the decimal number RANDOM.
> In the closed interval [0, 32767], each of 0 through 7 occurs as
> the ones digit in 3277 integers, while 8 and 9 each occurs in 3276
> integers.
Thanks.  Not too complicated after all.
> The uniform distribution doesn't follow Benford's law.
>
> https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2866333/#s3
Looks over my head but will read.  I think I understand it intuitively: 
the difference between 1 and 2 is much bigger than between 8 and 9 in 
terms of ratio of change.  At higher digits one 'risks' flipping the 
odometer to an additional digit, which will of course be very likely to 
be 1.  Needs work.  Anyway it's established that RANDOM is not applicable.
> Probability can be very subtle, and it's hard to be sure you're
> doing things right.  I'm no expert myself.
I've been aware of that in principle for a long time but this is my 
first hard experience of it, at least as far as RANDOM goes.  Quite 
fascinating that something that sounds so simple and so easy is anything 
but.  Humans can be erratic, but never random.  Thank you Sensei.