POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Weekly calibration : Re: Weekly calibration Server Time
6 Sep 2024 11:15:40 EDT (-0400)
  Re: Weekly calibration  
From: scott
Date: 21 Apr 2009 05:25:43
Message: <49ed9117@news.povray.org>
>> In the limit of N --> infinity.
>
>  That's, in fact, the exact same thing as saying "never".

Ermm, no, it's saying that the probability will get as close to 1 as you 
want, and in the limit it will *equal* 1.  Exactly the same as saying 
0.999999... can get as close to 1 as you want, and in the limit is actually 
*equal* to 1.

>  And that's how it is: Each *individual* round of popping up values from
> the RNG has a smaller-than-1 probability for the works to appear. Thus at
> no point are the works *forced* to appear.

For a finite number of tries, no.

>> Or do you also disagree with 0.99999... with infinitely many 9's equals 
>> 1?

No go on, please answer this one, because it's the same thing.  At which 
point does 9/10 + 9/100 + 9/1000 suddenly equal 1?  Answer: when you extend 
the series to infinity.

>  Do you disagree that a probability of zero does not mean that the event
> will never happen?

A probability of zero means an event does not happen by definition, however 
if you try an infinite number of times it might not necessarily never 
happen.

A good example has already been mentioned, of choosing an exact number 
between 0 and 1.  The probability is zero for any specific number, but if 
you sum up the infinite number of probabilities between say 0.2 and 0.3, you 
will get a non-zero probability.


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