sub gaussian_rand {
    my ($u1, $u2);  # uniformly distributed random numbers
    my $w;          # variance, then a weight
    my ($g1, $g2);  # gaussian-distributed numbers

    do {
        $u1 = 2 * rand() - 1;
        $u2 = 2 * rand() - 1;
        $w = $u1*$u1 + $u2*$u2;
    } while ( $w >= 1 );

    $w = sqrt( (-2 * log($w))  / $w );
    $g2 = $u1 * $w;
    $g1 = $u2 * $w;
    # return both if wanted, else just one
    return wantarray ? ($g1, $g2) : $g1;
}
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The gaussian_rand function [generates] two numbers with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1 (i.e., a Gaussian distribution). To generate numbers with a different mean and standard deviation, multiply the output of gaussian_rand by the new standard deviation, and then add the new mean