A simple embarrassingly parallel application

As a simple example of an embarrassingly parallel statistical application, we will repeatedly compute the mean of a set of normally distributed random numbers. For now, you will process it sequentially using a for loop, and the sapply() function.

In general, we recommend to implement any task that will be repeatedly applied to data as a function. Here, the function will be called mean_of_rnorm(). It generates random numbers with rnorm(), then computes their mean.

The objects n_numbers_per_replicate (set to 10000) and n_replicates (set to 50) have been created for you and determine the length of the random numbers vector and how many times the task is repeated, respectively.

Complete the definition of a function, mean_of_rnorm, to calculate normally distributed random numbers.
- The function should take one argument: n .
- Draw random numbers by calling rnorm(), passing it the mean_of_rnorm argument n and assigning the result to random_numbers.
- Calculate the mean of the random numbers.
Try the function by calling it, setting n to 100.

Take Hint (-10 XP)

Exercise

A simple embarrassingly parallel application

Instructions 1/3