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JavaScript

Posted by Patrick Cole
Patrick Cole
5,189 Points

This can't be a coincidence, can it?

I was fooling around with the random number generator in javascript and received the number 55 three times out of six. I have attached a photo of what I saw in the console.

http://imgur.com/OpNRlSg

4 Answers

Erik McClintock
Erik McClintock
45,783 Points

Patrick,

It is a totally random number that you're generating there, so it just happened that 55 was the number chosen 3 out of 6 times. To truly see the randomness, you would need a larger set of data to inspect. Try running it 100 times, and you should get a better indication of this.

Erik

Craig Dennis
STAFF
Craig Dennis
Treehouse Teacher
Craig Dennis
Craig Dennis
Treehouse Teacher

Sounds like it's time to go find a roulette table. ;)

Myers Carpenter
Myers Carpenter
6,421 Points
Myers Carpenter
Myers Carpenter
6,421 Points

You are using the wrong random number generator. jk.

This is known as the Birthday Paradox. Our intuition says we shouldn't see repeats in random sets of numbers as often as we do.