The discussion revolves around the impact of the drop location of balls in a bean machine on the resulting distribution of the balls in the bins. Participants explore the relationship between the drop point and the characteristics of the resulting distribution, particularly in relation to Gaussian distributions.
Participants express differing views on how the drop location affects the mean of the distribution, with no consensus reached on the exact implications of dropping from different points.
There are unresolved assumptions regarding the nature of the distribution when balls are dropped from various locations, and the discussion does not clarify the mathematical steps involved in determining the mean.
jedishrfu said:yes its supposed to simulate a gaussian distribution
Yes, if you're dropping the beans in the centre. If you drop them at the right edge then you'll only get the left half of the Gaussian. Here's a challenge: where will the mean be?iVenky said:So you mean the place from which you drop the balls is the mean value of the gaussian distribution?
haruspex said:Yes, if you're dropping the beans in the centre. If you drop them at the right edge then you'll only get the left half of the Gaussian. Here's a challenge: where will the mean be?
No, must be closer to the edge where the beans are dropped in. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-normal_distributioniVenky said:It will still be at zero?
iVenky said:In the bean machine, we usually drop the balls from the center of the top right? That's the reason why most of the balls accumulate in the middle bin. If you drop the balls from the top right corner (say) then balls should fall in the bins in the right side, right?
Thanks a lot.