A new twist on random number generators

• Autores: Ray Swartz
• Localización: ;login:: the magazine of USENIX & SAGE, ISSN 1044-6397, Vol. 26, Nº. 1, 2001, págs. 46-48
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • It is surprising how frequently I need to use random numbers in my programs. First, I like to write games of chance involving dice or cards. Second, I am often hired to write Monte Carlo simulation models, which make heavy use of random numbers to select values from probability distributions. What�s more, I often find random numbers useful for testing my code.

    When I first started using random numbers, I wondered, how could a number generated by a deterministic computer program be considered �random� in any sense of the word? Wouldn�t numbers generated by a computer program show some obvious pattern? Well, yes and no.