Classroom note: Using Platonic bodies to generate a random sample from a population having two characteristics linked with a predetermined coefficient of correlation

Abstract

This note describes a simple method of generating a random sample of N pairs (U _i , W _i ) from a population whose elements have two characteristics U  and W associated with a known coefficient of correlation. Although the method described is extremely advantageous when Platonic bodies are used, it can be generalized to include any discrete uniform distribution.