Is it possible to generate a truly random number?

Answer 1

Let's see...apply fingers to numbers on keyboard.....hmmmmmm..mmmmm....
4810239571465720348 yup! Did I help?

Answer 2

sort of. it will be a random number to you anyway.

you see, when a computer generates a random number it uses the numbers on its clock to determine what that random number will be. but since the clocks in computers move so fast it seems random. however, if you were able to slow things down you would be able to predict exactly which number would be chosen. Even so, that system works well enough to seem like a random number for nearly any application you could think of.

in the human mind.... ya of course. 348023592. ...there ya go... thats a random number.

also, what about how they pick the lottery numbers or raffle tickets in those big spinning machines. ...I would say that is totaly random because there are too many variables for us to be able to calculate which ticket would be chosen. the disadvantage of this, of course, is that you can only fit so many tickets or balls into a machine. ...with a computer or the human mind the range of numbers to select from is much larger.

...O! theres another thought! if you really want to think about this. the answer is NO! because if you include infinity there is no possible way that any human brain or computer could ever include all of the numbers there are (since infinity never ends)... and so no matter what we arent generating a truly random number because we are forced to exclude an infinate number of numbers.

Answer 3

yea why not

Assume: a computer picks a number randomly from 1-100. Each number has the same probability of being picked as the others. If you make the computer pick a numebr for lets say 1 million times, and you tabulate the result, you would probably see that some numbers were chosen more frequently than the others. So you'd think, even at a random event, some possibilities are more favoured than others. But thats not true.

lets say that in the table, the number 100 was choosen 1 hundred thousand times. It doesnt mean that the probability of the computer choosing the number 100 in its next pick is 1/10. It just means that in 1 million picks, the number 100 was chosen one hundred thousand times. period. It doesnt make the system biased. The next pick is still by random.

Answer 4

No, because even code that produces random numbers require an algorithm. Current implementations make random numbers at a very precise level, and hence they are called pseudo-random number generators, i.e. not truly random.

Answer 5

I've used random number generators to predict the outcome of certain probabilities, they've worked with a plus or minus 5% error rate....that statistical significance was good enough for me.

Answer 6

I think, if your boil it down, you'll find this is a free will question. That of course brings about definitions of God and that whole spider's nest of connundrums. Basically, it comes down to belief: Do you believe there is a fate your are, inescapably, destined to follow or no. There's your random number... or no.

Fo the record, I believe random numbers are possible.

Answer 7

As an undergraduate we had to buy a "BOOK", 236 pages of VERY close script, of random numbers. The reason? Otherwise it is IMPOSSIBLE to replicate - hope this helps.

Answer 8

You can approximate a random number... just like you can approximate Pi.

Modern methods and algorithms make them "practically" obtainable... as with... Pi.

Answer 9

no because involuntarily your brain picks one out of the numbers you usually use, one that you are familiar to. no brain (human, or artificial) can really do that. because everything we do is "programed", cause and effect. we sometimes pick certain numbers that mean something to us. hell knows what all of them mean.

Answer 10

Let me check. If I close my eyes and hit the key pad. 543.

Yes, it is.