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Purpose:  Since its creation, the computer has long been a worth adversary of man.  This competition began with the creation of the first chess program which could easily eliminate human competitors, and progressed into the monsters that are destroyed, the football teams that are played against and the empires that must be conquered.  However, the computer is responsible for maintaining randomness and controlling the game. It is therefore the purpose of this experiment to determine whether the computer plays a fair game.

Hypothesis:  It is the belief of Scientific AmeriKen that computers only execute its given commands and therefore cannot develop biases with which to influence game play. Therefore, the hypothesis of this experiment is that computers play fair and completely random.
Equipment: Used in this experiment was a Nintendo Entertainment system, Pen, Paper, and a calculator.  The game used in this experiment was Tetris. A similar version of this game can be examined my clicking here.
Procedure: One purpose of the game of tetris is to complete 4 lines at once (called a tetris). This can only be done with the linear piece. Therefore this experiment is performed by keeping track of the number of straight pieces in the total game, the total number of pieces that fall in the game, and the number of pieces that fall while waiting for a straight piece to form a tetris. Average out the latter sum and compare against the number of lines divided by the total number of pieces.
Results:
 
Trial # Total Lines Total Pieces % lines in game Ave. pieces waiting for line
Trial 1
20
145
13.8 % (1 for  every 7.25)
6.7 pieces
Trial 2
56
405
13.8 % (1 for  every 7.25)
5.7 pieces
Trial 3
6
57
10.5 % (1 for  every 9.52)
1.0 piece
Trial 4
26
171
15.2% (1 for  every 6.58)
3.91 pieces
Totals
108
778
13.9 % (1 for every 7.20)
Theoretical for lines =  14.3 %
5.34 pieces
Conclusion:  Based on the data, it appears as though the computer was actually favoring Scientific AmeriKen. Under conditions where lines were needed, i.e. to complete a tetris,  lines came at a higher percentage.  Scientific AmeriKen is skeptical of these results as it is believed that the Nintendo was aware that it was being examined. However, based on the results which examine % lines per game, it is relatively clear that the percentage of lines that came in a game seem to fit a pattern of randomness. This supports the computer as a fair game player.



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To examine a printable version of this experiment click here
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