Bean Machine Simulation

Question

I could not find a solution from my book's website (student-level access) but I feel that I am missing something that I'm supposed to learn from this exercise.

Instructions: Balls are dropped from the opening of the board. Every time a ball hits a nail, it has a 50% chance of falling to the left or to the right. The piles of balls are accumulated in the slots at the bottom of the board.

Book's example:

Enter the number of balls to drop: 5
Enter the number of slots in the bean machine: 7
LRLRLRR 
RRLLLRR 
LLRLLRR 
RRLLLLL 
LRLRRLR
 0
 0
 000

My attempt:

import java.util.*;
public class BeanMachine {
 public static void main(String[] args) {
 Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
 System.out.print("Enter number of balls to drop: ");
 int numberOfBalls = input.nextInt();
 System.out.print("Enter the number of slots in the bean machine: ");
 int numberOfSlots = input.nextInt();
 //Simulate drops
 int[] slots = new int[numberOfSlots];
 for (int i = 0; i < numberOfBalls; i++) {
 simulateDrop(slots);
 }
 //Display histogram
 for (int i = numberOfBalls; i > 0; i--) {
 for (int j = 0; j < slots.length; j++) {
 if (slots[j] >= i) {
 System.out.print("0");
 }
 else {
 System.out.print(" ");
 }
 }
 System.out.println();
 }
 }
 public static void simulateDrop(int[] slots) {
 StringBuilder path = new StringBuilder(slots.length);
 int slotIndex = 0;
 int numberOfNails = slots.length - 1;
 for (int i = 0; i < numberOfNails; i++) {
 int direction = (int)(Math.random() * 2);
 if (direction == 0) {
 path.append("L");
 }
 else {
 path.append("R");
 slotIndex++;
 }
 }
 System.out.println(path.toString());
 slots[slotIndex]++;
 }
}

• janos: What is the goal here? How do you know if your program works correctly? (Does it?)
• 200_success: @janos The question seems clear enough. The code appears to work as advertised.
• mkrieger1: @Legate have you read the Wikipedia article? I'm not sure if your program simulates one of those (it may, but I'm not convinced).
• Obenland: I thing you shouldn't try to find an easy solution by writing two methods but a clean solution with OOP. Separate input, presentation and business logic.
• Aron_dc: There are two things that seem to be off here: 1. you never touch the slotIndex in your simulateDrop method 2. you initialize your slotIndex with 0 does a ball really drop into the 0th slot if it would drop straight down passing through each nail miracoulusly?

Answer 1

Java has good support for OOP techniques - Using these will allow you to create a more elegant solution. Your code could be refactored with the correct use of these techniques to produce something of the form:

PegMachine sampleTest = PegMachine(500,100);
sampleTest.histogram;

This approach hides the complexities of the program and allows you to conduct tests by simply creating a PegMachine specifying the number of pegs and balls for each sample.

I noticed Aron_dc pointed out the slotIndex variable in your simulateDrop method is never used - This can be removed as it does not contribute anything to your program.

Out of curiosity I conducted a larger sample using your code to see if it produced the correct normal-distribution curve. The results were as expected; confirming your codes correctness.

Besides suggesting the use of object orientation your code seems well written and correct.