Have you ever wondered how accurate Javascript's Math.random() function actually is?
I thought about this the other day, so i decided to make a small experiment to find out.
🧪 You can try it out yourself HERE
Depending on sample size, i was actually surprised to how random the results were.
With a small sample size (for instance just 100 tests), i got percentages as low as 5% and as high as 17% for each value (10 values in total).
But as i got to higher samples sizes (for instance 1.000.000) i got consistently values between 9.92% and 10.08%.
I have made these test using Chrome. As i understand it, it is actually the browser that implements how the Math.random() works, so there may be some differences between the browsers. It would be nice to test this some day...
Here are some cool articles i found about this subject:
- There’s Math.random(), and then there’s Math.random()
- How does JavaScript’s Math.random() generate random numbers?
- Math.random on MDN
This isn't scientific in any way, and there are many factors that can influence the results you get. This was just a fun little weekend project of mine, so please take the results and my conclusion for what they are...