What is the purpose of 1.0 in the last line?

[coursecoder30879]

Heres the problem:

Sorry about the indentation. Here’s the code. I don’t understand the purpose of multiplying 1.0 with numberOfHits / NUMBER_OF_TRIALS. Does it have to do with decimal precision?

import random

NUMBER_OF_TRIALS = 1000000
numberOfHits = 0

for i in range(NUMBER_OF_TRIALS):
    x = random.random() * 2.0 - 1;
    y = random.random() * 2.0 - 1;
    if x < 0:
        numberOfHits += 1
    elif not (x > 1 or x < 0 or y > 1 or y < 0):
        slope = (1.0 - 0) / (0 - 1.0)
        x1 = x + -y * slope
        if x1 <= 1:
          numberOfHits += 1

print("The probability in Region 1 and 3 is " +
      str(1.0 * numberOfHits / NUMBER_OF_TRIALS))

[stetim94]

this is depends on your python version, given numberOfHits and NUMBER_OF_TRIALS are both integers, in python2, this would result in 0:

print 624542 / 1000000 # outputs 0 in python2

given python2 rounds down if the division involves two integers

by including a float (1.0) in the equation, we ensure this doesn’t happen, so it ensures support for both python2 and python3 (without 1.0 it will work in python3 correctly, but not in python2)

[coursecoder30879]

Thank you very much stetim94.

[coursecoder30879]

Also is there a random function which gives a random real number in the range [0, 1] including both 0 and 1.

[mtf]

is there a random function which gives a random real number in the range [0, 1] including both 0 and 1

Short answer, no, not if the desired outcome is a float. It is a simple matter to generate [0, 1],

randint(0,2)

---

Something to consider…

>>> from random import random
>>> def rnd():
	return random() * 11 / 10

>>> print (rnd())
0.9388749864478274
>>> print (rnd())
0.5615871213656047
>>> print (rnd())
0.5685012014457733
>>> print (rnd())
0.6331925532135552
>>> print (rnd())
0.014260045313360947
>>> print (rnd())
0.4796619820071058
>>> print (rnd())
0.6980231580612197
>>> print (rnd())
0.9758995970534003
>>> print (rnd())
0.2479411808051278
>>> print (rnd())
0.4251275501621959
>>> print (rnd())
0.4311769102905122
>>> print (rnd())
0.9946137239584611
>>> print (rnd())
0.2843607901671109
>>> print (rnd())
0.4127076092956984
>>> print (rnd())
0.5230884668505086
>>> print (rnd())
0.9992597355363472
>>> print (rnd())
1.0049627583563256
>>> 

The last one shows that we can reach and pass 1. So it will up to our code to detect when it is equal or greater, and swap it out for 1.0 or convert to integer.