A Mathematical Diversion
A few years back, I would get together with a bunch of friends during lunch and play strategy games. I've been waxing nostalgic for those get-togethers and have even scripted some new scenarios that we could use. The dice, sheet protectors and grease pencils made for some great fun, but I've thought about what could be done to make it a little more high tech.
I was momentarily bored today, so I figured out how to create a function that would allow you to use an Excel function in place of dice.
The function RAND will generate a random number between 0 and 1. =RAND()
If you want to specify a min-max range, for example if you were using a twelve-sided die, multiply the result times the largest possible number less the smallest and add 1. =RAND()*(12-1)+1
If you want to round up the number so you don’t get any decimal places, add the ROUND function and specify zero decimals. =ROUND((RAND()*(12-1)+1),0)
If you wanted to, you could put this function into multiple cells, specifying a different range of numbers for each cell. Just press F9 and the computer will do all the die rolls for you!
I wonder if this is how the M5 computer system started?
I was momentarily bored today, so I figured out how to create a function that would allow you to use an Excel function in place of dice.
The function RAND will generate a random number between 0 and 1. =RAND()
If you want to specify a min-max range, for example if you were using a twelve-sided die, multiply the result times the largest possible number less the smallest and add 1. =RAND()*(12-1)+1
If you want to round up the number so you don’t get any decimal places, add the ROUND function and specify zero decimals. =ROUND((RAND()*(12-1)+1),0)
If you wanted to, you could put this function into multiple cells, specifying a different range of numbers for each cell. Just press F9 and the computer will do all the die rolls for you!
I wonder if this is how the M5 computer system started?
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