infinite domain uniform random number
6 views (last 30 days)
Show older comments
Hello,
I am wondering if I can generate a set of random numbers which are distributed uniformly in an (-\infty, \infty) domain.
Thank you :)
0 Comments
Answers (2)
Andrew Newell
on 21 Dec 2011
Not in practice. If you could, then with probability 1 they would be too large to represent.
0 Comments
Walter Roberson
on 21 Dec 2011
No, a uniform distribution over an infinite domain would require that each point have a probability of 0. And you would not be able to represent any results outside of +/- 1.7E308 as that is about the largest number that can be represented in double precision.
Uniform distribution over [-realmax, realmax] is not possible either, as double precision floating point numbers are not able to represent all numbers in that range
The number of distinct double precision floating numbers is less than 10^20, and those are not evenly spaced.
0 Comments
See Also
Categories
Find more on Random Number Generation in Help Center and File Exchange
Community Treasure Hunt
Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!
Start Hunting!