thanks, betadistribute did the work... and i learned a new thing! On 26 Feb, 22:56, Robert Kern <robert.k...gmail.com> wrote: > On 2010-02-26 15:26 PM, pistacchio wrote: > > > hi, > > i'm trying the random.gauss function. can anyone explain how to get a > > number between a given range? > > You don't. The Gaussian distribution has infinite range. The best you can do > with the standard library is to keep sampling until you get a number inside > your > desired range. If you aren't careful about your choice of parameters, this > could > waste a lot of time. > > > like, from 0 to 20 with an average of > > 10? and how to determine the "steep" of the curve? i've never studied > > it, so mu and sigma don't really tell me a thing. > > Study it: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution > > mu is the mean, the location of the central peak. sigma is the standard > deviation, which controls the width of the peak. Larger sigma means wider and > shorter peak. > > You may want another distribution, like random.betavariate(): > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_distribution > > -- > Robert Kern > > "I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma > that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it > had > an underlying truth." > -- Umberto Eco
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