--- [email protected] wrote:
> 2. how to cancel the seed set previously? Maybe next time I
> again want to produce uniformly distributed random variates,
> and set seed 100 by accident, which may lead to the variates
> produced is not random.
Computers on their own can't produce truly random numbers.
They are determininistic sequences of numbers that mimic a
sequence that would occur randomly. A lot of effort has gone
into creating these (pseudo) random number generators and
they are now very good at mimicing a (truly) random proces.
The advantage of using these deterministic sequences is that
your results are reproducable. So, I would consider it a
feature that you get the same sequence of numbers if you
"by accident set the seed at 100 again". This sequence still
mimic the behavior of a truly random number, so you don't
have to worry that this "may lead to the variates produced
is not random."
Hope this helps,
Maarten
Ps. A fun way of creating truely random numbers is:
http://gamesbyemail.com/News/DiceOMatic
-----------------------------------------
Maarten L. Buis
Institut fuer Soziologie
Universitaet Tuebingen
Wilhelmstrasse 36
72074 Tuebingen
Germany
http://home.fsw.vu.nl/m.buis/
-----------------------------------------
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