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Excel - randomizing data for splitting farmland
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tedbear
Posted 12/21/2014 14:46 (#4255255 - in reply to #4254804)
Subject: RE: Excel - randomizing data for splitting farmland


Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn.
Ed Boysun - 12/21/2014 09:52

The so called random function in any computer is more properly called pseudorandom. Output depends on what you seed the generator with, so there is one opportunity to insert some mischief. The other problem with DKO's approach is; random results have no memory of what was last to come up. In a selection of 100 items; and using Excel's random generator, I'd be very surprised if the split was not closer to 60/40 than 50/50. Whether it would favor the 1s or 2s is anyone's guess.



Yes, the random number generators are not truly random and do depend on the "seed" for the generator. This is very evident with my various music players. For example my car system can get music from a walkman or my phone. If I set the car to shuffle the songs, the playback is mixed up and not played back in alphabetic order. However this "random" order is always the same with songs being played back the same every time the car is started. If I shut the shuffle off and then pick some songs manually and then go back to shuffle, I will get some songs that I haven't heard in a while in a new order.

Years ago I used to write some code in the BASIC programming language. The random number generator there could be used with a fixed seed number which would result in the same sequence of "random" numbers every time it was run. A trick was to use the time function as a seed number. Since the time would likely be different each time the program was run, the output was closer to being truly random. If you ran the program at exactly the same time each day then the output would result in the same list.

I created a program that would make a seating chart with the students in random seats. This program did create the seating pattern in an almost random sequence. If I didn't like the looks of the arrangement I would just run it again to get a different plan. This was with Junior High students who wanted to move around.
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