HP Prime: RANDOM

[Alberto Candel]

Good Morning,

From Home, Toolbox- Math- Probability - Random - Number sets up the RANDOM function which inputs two numbers and outputs a random number in between those two. Produces a display like

RANDOM(1,100) 99.2856397571

In CAS, the same sequence of key presses produces the display

RANDOM(1+100*i) 20.2759023826

I wonder what is the role of the "i" in RANDOM. That is, I did not input "i" to RANDOM, I typed RANDOM(1,100) but it displayed the line above.

Thanks!

[parisse]

RANDOM does not follow the same grammatical rule as "normal" functions for the CAS parser. You must write it without parenthesis RANDOM 1,100 or with parenthesis *outside* (RANDOM 1,100)

[Alberto Candel]

I see, thank you. But then, I wonder why the parenthesis come in when choosing RANDOM. that it's, the sequence of key presses above sets up RANDOM().

[Han]

Quote:

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Good Morning,

From Home, Toolbox- Math- Probability - Random - Number sets up the RANDOM function which inputs two numbers and outputs a random number in between those two. Produces a display like

RANDOM(1,100) 99.2856397571

In CAS, the same sequence of key presses produces the display

RANDOM(1+100*i) 20.2759023826

I wonder what is the role of the "i" in RANDOM. That is, I did not input "i" to RANDOM, I typed RANDOM(1,100) but it displayed the line above.

Thanks!

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(a,b) is interpreted by the CAS parser to mean complex numbers. Ideally, though, RANDOM should have actually parsed RANDOM(1,100) "properly" and only assume a complex input when typing RANDOM((1,100)) -- we can only hope that they can find a way to do this for the next firmware.

[Alberto Candel]

I hope HP hears you. One unfortunate issue that this mismatch of notation causes is that "importing" is useless. It still works from Home to CAS, but it creates a messy instruction from CAS to Home.