From: Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@...>
Date: 2008-02-28T07:21:31+09:00
Subject: Re: Math problem

On 2/27/08, Pit Capitain <pit.capitain@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2008/2/27, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@gmail.com>:
>
> > Not exactly the fastest way to do it empirically, why random.
>
> > (...)
>
>  Rick, are you sure?
>

Well except in the case where some ZERO cleverly seeds the random
number generator to produce the right random numbers, yes!  A very
slight modification:

 def init_counts
   zero =  0
   @counts = Hash.new(zero)
 end

produces:

father: 48 daughter: 12
Father is 48 years old, Daughter is 12.

rick: 12 loops
thomas: 19467 loops


Of course, being random, the thomas count varies, while the rick count
stays at 12.

And then I much prefer the algebraic solution I worked out in a few
seconds on paper when the question was first posed.

I leave to others the pleasure of discovering the details of your trick. <G>


-- 
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/