I think you'll like this. Not only does it randomize your values for you, but it gives a visual display of the result so you can see the distribution. Change the weight to see how it affects things - larger numbers mean closer to $x, smaller means further, with 1 being classic bell curve.

use strict;
use warnings;

my ($x, $y, $weight, @r) = (5, 10, 2);

push @r, multirand($x, $y, $weight) for 1..10000;
display(\@r, 50);

sub multirand {
    my ($x, $y, $weight) = @_;
    return $x * $y ** (rand() ** $weight * (rand() > 0.5 ? 1 : -1));
}

sub display {
    my ($r1, $max) = @_;
    my (@r2, $skip, $i);

    $skip = ($#$r1 + 1) / 40;
    @r2 = sort { $a <=> $b } @$r1;
    
    for ($i = 0; $i <= $#r2; $i += $skip) {
        print 'x' x ($r2[$i] / $max * 80 + 0.5) . "\n";
    }
}

[download]

Output: 

x
x
x
xx
xx
xx
xxx
xxx
xxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxxx
xxxxx
xxxxxx
xxxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[download]

In reply to Re: custom random number generator by TJPride
in thread custom random number generator by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.