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The article starts out with: "A random number generator (RNG) is a computational or physical device designed to generate a sequence of numbers or symbols that lack any pattern, i.e. appear random." But it should be the other way around: If an Observer find that a sequence lack any pattern, it appears random to him. Different observers may rate the same sequence differently. The randomness is not in the sequence.
Bo Domstedt http://www.trng98.se
write about it please
The wording in this section ( Random number generation#True vs. pseudo-random numbers) is misleading. It mixes together the theoretical underpinnings: true random numbers / pseudo random numbers and practical implementations. In the theoretical sense, the true- and pseudo-random numbers are two different beasts with their own benefits and drawbacks:
In practical designs the true random generator actually includes a pseudorandom one. See, for example, NIST SP 800-90A, so there is no "vs.". Also, in the physical world, any entropy source is very fragile (for the simple reason that most of its non-catastrophic failures are extremely hard - or even impossible - to detect). Dimawik ( talk) 22:04, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
@ Aezarebski: Thank you for adding a reference to Nishimura's work. However, I do not quite understand how this work is relevant to this section. [1] contains some language on p. 5, but I have hard time interpreting it to support the sentence "are unsuitable where high-quality randomness is required, such as ... statistics" (ellipsis is mine). Can you help me? Dimawik ( talk) 06:13, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Random number generation article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
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|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
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The article starts out with: "A random number generator (RNG) is a computational or physical device designed to generate a sequence of numbers or symbols that lack any pattern, i.e. appear random." But it should be the other way around: If an Observer find that a sequence lack any pattern, it appears random to him. Different observers may rate the same sequence differently. The randomness is not in the sequence.
Bo Domstedt http://www.trng98.se
write about it please
The wording in this section ( Random number generation#True vs. pseudo-random numbers) is misleading. It mixes together the theoretical underpinnings: true random numbers / pseudo random numbers and practical implementations. In the theoretical sense, the true- and pseudo-random numbers are two different beasts with their own benefits and drawbacks:
In practical designs the true random generator actually includes a pseudorandom one. See, for example, NIST SP 800-90A, so there is no "vs.". Also, in the physical world, any entropy source is very fragile (for the simple reason that most of its non-catastrophic failures are extremely hard - or even impossible - to detect). Dimawik ( talk) 22:04, 2 March 2024 (UTC)
@ Aezarebski: Thank you for adding a reference to Nishimura's work. However, I do not quite understand how this work is relevant to this section. [1] contains some language on p. 5, but I have hard time interpreting it to support the sentence "are unsuitable where high-quality randomness is required, such as ... statistics" (ellipsis is mine). Can you help me? Dimawik ( talk) 06:13, 25 June 2024 (UTC)