In: computer
17 Jul 2010This may be a little strange, but I have always wondered how you can use a computer to get to select a random number (or letter, etc.) from a list? I mean, we as people have enough trouble understanding the concept of selected “randomly” (though here not to be distracted), but we can think, or if you are a kind of algorithm or know of a computer program that a random number that it briefly , chooses to explain?
A computer usually uses an algorithm to generate a random number to a start value. The initial value is chosen with a variety of sources – every time you use the Internet (the packets are sent) your hard disk data read / write, move, tap the keyboard or mouse, it is used as a source of (pseudo) – random data.
These pseudo-random value is then an algorithm that computes a sequence of numbers that are fairly random as passed. An example of this algorithm has Mersenne Twister, and others.
Of course, since it uses an algorithm, and a start value (called seeds), each algorithm has a period number. This frequency is then the maximum length of the generated numbers before they start to repeat.
This is about gadget and consumer electronic information question.