08-25-2009 04:43 AM
Thanks Pine but I don't think I'll be doing those experiments myself.
Maybe I am no just saying which one is better (more random). Perhaps seed A will give a wider set of random numbers than seed B...
Anyway from what I have learnt from here is that it is a different starting point.
08-25-2009 12:56 PM
There is something called a "bad seed." It's what the people in my boyhood neighborhood called me. 😉
Bill
08-25-2009 05:16 PM
battler. wrote:Thanks NRP.
I need to set the seed value so that I can repeat the same random numbers. I suppose what I'm getting at is if I do set the seed what value which give the "most random" (is it a function of amplitude also?) set of random numbers?
For instance I have heard of people using a seed with the same number of 1s and 0s (binary). I'm not sure why they did it.
Cheers,
Battler.
Without trying to sound glib, this is probably not something you should spend too much time worrying about. The random is good enough for most purposes. There is so much mathematics behind random number generators that it is basically not worth the time investment to try and obtain ultimate understanding!
08-25-2009 05:37 PM
If you really cared about "randomness" your time would be better spent implementing a better PRNG than determining a better seed for the current one. The value you enter is run through the grinder a couple of times before it enters into the recurrence, so any distribution of 1's and 0's you try to introduce is diluted away. All seeds are essentially equal. Unless you are doing cryptography or large-scale Monte Carlo simulations you'll probably be very well served by the existing VI.
I think the primary reason that seeding is even an option is that certain applications (games, encrypters) might be rendered useless if some devious individual were able to anticipate the "random" numbers. This is not so hard to do if you know the seeding algorithm and the value of the computer clock. That is why there is an art to choosing a seed, not any inherent improvement of the resulting stream.