The probability of generating a zero is incredibly low if you use the normal distribution curve.So it is not necessarily that it doesn't generate zero, they did not run enough times to increase the probability of actually generating a zero.
From what I can see they were trying to generate 16bit integers, so the probability is 1 in 65536 and they were running the test for 11 hours.You definitely would expect a roughly equal number of 0s as any other of those numbers since it's uniformly distributed. And definitely not 0
> You definitely would expect a roughly equal number of 0s as any other of those numbers since it's uniformly distributed.How would random numbers be uniformly distributed?
With enough repetitions.With a few (say 10, so 655360 runs), you will not get a uniform distribution, and some numbers (like 0) might not appear.
ExoticPearTree · · focus · HN ↗
So it is not necessarily that it doesn't generate zero, they did not run enough times to increase the probability of actually generating a zero.
blensor · · focus · HN ↗
You definitely would expect a roughly equal number of 0s as any other of those numbers since it's uniformly distributed. And definitely not 0
ExoticPearTree · · focus · HN ↗
How would random numbers be uniformly distributed?
necovek · · focus · HN ↗
With a few (say 10, so 655360 runs), you will not get a uniform distribution, and some numbers (like 0) might not appear.