1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Si o No

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by Mystery Squid, Dec 29, 2005.

?
  1. si

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  2. no

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. Mystery Squid

    Mystery Squid Junior Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2005
    2
    3
    0
    since we all seem to love odd math issues.... lol
     
  2. bigdaddy

    bigdaddy Member

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2005
    991
    3
    0
    Location:
    Duluth Georgia
    si, and I believe in quantum computing too.
     
  3. tag

    tag Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2003
    2,526
    19
    0
    Location:
    Chicago
    I voted in the affirmative despite not really knowing (nor caring) about "odd math issues". :lol:
     
  4. jeneric

    jeneric New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2005
    442
    1
    0
    Location:
    Redmond, WA
    I said sí, but I sure can't think of one. Does having humans train animals to choose a random number count?
     
  5. tunabreath

    tunabreath New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2005
    226
    0
    0
    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Sure, there are lots of physically-based random number generators.

    Humans are actually really bad at generating random numbers. We tend to distribute things too evenly.
     
  6. skruse

    skruse Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2004
    1,454
    97
    0
    Location:
    Coloma CA - Sierra Nevada
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Nature is not random. Nature tries every permutation and combination (as exemplified by genome projects). Only humans resort to tables of random numbers to pretend we are being random. Even then, we introduce bias.
     
  7. jeneric

    jeneric New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2005
    442
    1
    0
    Location:
    Redmond, WA
    To get my random number, I had the computer count to 100 100 times a second, and stop when I hit a key. I didn't think there was much bias there.
     
  8. skruse

    skruse Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2004
    1,454
    97
    0
    Location:
    Coloma CA - Sierra Nevada
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    II
    There is always come bias, even with the best of intentions using the best of systems.
     
  9. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    May 11, 2004
    14,816
    2,498
    66
    Location:
    Far-North Chicagoland
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Advanced
    No.

    Nothing is random. All number generators have an underlying intelligent design.

    [sits back waiting for a religious debate to rage. Bwa-ha-ha-ha :lol:]
    oh crap, did I type that out loud?
     
  10. jeneric

    jeneric New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2005
    442
    1
    0
    Location:
    Redmond, WA
    What's the bias? I can't even distinguish one 1/10000th of a second from the next, let alone prefer one.
     
  11. imntacrook

    imntacrook New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2005
    289
    0
    0
    Location:
    On the Beach
    I voted No, but I think things like stopping a computer like you described or ping pong balls in a wind tunnel are random, but I don't think there is a mathematical way to generate a random number. - but I could be wrong.

    24 hours in a day, 24 bottles of beer in a case. Coincidence?? Maybe...
     
  12. jeneric

    jeneric New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2005
    442
    1
    0
    Location:
    Redmond, WA
    It take some serious modeling at the atomic level, but it should be theorhetically possible to represent ping pong balls in a wind tunnel mathematically. My vote is you can't call that truly random.
     
  13. bigdaddy

    bigdaddy Member

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2005
    991
    3
    0
    Location:
    Duluth Georgia
    I think intelligent design is what Squid does when he tosses out these random polls.
     
  14. engunneer

    engunneer Member

    Joined:
    Mar 14, 2005
    307
    0
    0
    Location:
    Medford, MA
    Vehicle:
    2020 Prius Prime
    Model:
    XLE
    I've read about generators taht use cosmic static to generate strings of ones and zeroes. You can actualy buy individual, unique CDs filled with truly random digits. The CDs are statistically tested for randomness and have passed some tests to prove randomness. (As far as I remember, since this was 7 years or so ago.)
     
  15. tunabreath

    tunabreath New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2005
    226
    0
    0
    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Yeah, but are they truly random?
     
  16. jeneric

    jeneric New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2005
    442
    1
    0
    Location:
    Redmond, WA
    So you can't get one that doesn't pass the test? That seems less random.
     
  17. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2004
    14,487
    1,518
    0
    Location:
    Spokane, WA
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    I believe there are no mathematical formulas that generate true random number sequences, but I believe there are methods to generate true random numbers.
     
  18. ceric

    ceric New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2004
    1,114
    53
    0
    Location:
    Fremont, CA
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Nothing is truely random.
    Things happen for a reason. It appears to be random because we don't understand it enough... :)

    There is no math formulum that generates a random number sequence that does not repeat itself. It is a matter of period. A 48bit formula may have a much longer sequence than a 32 bit one before the sequence repeats itself.
     
  19. bigdaddy

    bigdaddy Member

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2005
    991
    3
    0
    Location:
    Duluth Georgia
    Why's everyone bringing in math and algorithms and computers into this? Why can't one just point a big ol dish at the sky and use the randomness of the comos' background noise to get somethin random? Matter of fact, there is a dude in switzerland with a geiger counter and a pc who's offering "tubes" of random bits to folks for a (modest?) sum... http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/
     
  20. jeneric

    jeneric New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2005
    442
    1
    0
    Location:
    Redmond, WA
    I think it's because we don't think background noise is truly random. We figure each bit of noise got created by a specific definable event. Maybe you can point us to a specific event that would be random. Of course, then we'll just figure that it's still happening for a specific reason, following a physical law, we just don't know why yet.