It depends if the bell as a crack in it like the liberty bell or it may be that it's tuned to the 3rd harmonic and I can't tell as I have tinatus [excuse spelling as spelling checker wants to put in tetanus] from a thread the other week my ears are still ringing Regards Art :-) ----- Original Message ----- From: Plunkett, Dennis To: Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2000 10:36 PM Subject: Re: Generating Random Numbers? : Why would you want a bell shape? Would not your ideal response be flat? : : Dennis : : : : > -----Original Message----- : > From: William Chops Westfield [SMTP:billw@CISCO.COM] : > Sent: Monday, 8 May 2000 6:26 : > To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU : > Subject: Re: Generating Random Numbers? : > : > Speakinng of random numbers, I have a new (?) question. : > : > How do I generate random numbers with a nice statical distribution, ie : > ones that fit a standard bell-shaped curve. Most random number generators : > try to generate all possible combinations in an even distribution, but : > what : > if I want numbers "near" "X", perhaps with a specified standard : > deviation... : > : > BillW