how can a computer create a random number? this surely means it is making an unprogrammed decision?

Answer 1

there is a program probably designed using algorithms to do this

Answer 2

Oh god ... its been years since those VB classes i took in high school lol ... but no, the random number a computer generates is actually 100% programmed ... I cant describe the legisticts of it to you but it basically goes like this:

The programmer sets the parameters or boundaries of the randomized number. Lets say 1- 100 . Then the computer follows this pattern of generating a "random" number which is actually not random at all. Random in human knowledge means no previous knowledge of the possible outcome. In computer knowledge its more like "A patternized representation of as close to a random as possible with the given boundaries"

Im not sure that makes sense to you but basically a computer knows how and what the random number will be ... therefore it is not truly random.

Answer 3

All machines have a random number generator, usually this simply takes the date and time, then uses information from the machine and combines this to start generating. The whole thing is one program which can only return a specific result from this starting point, they normally generate a very large number and then use an algorithm to reduce it to a number in the range required. Many systems can use a simpler random generator and use the result to start the main one. This increases the randomness.

Answer 4

Actually, computers aren't capable of generating truly random numbers. Instead, they have an algorithm that generates "pseudo-random" numbers then they take the number of clock cycles since the computer was switched on and use it as the "seed" for that algorithm. Since there's no predicting the exact number of clock cycles, the result is as close to random as possible.

Answer 5

The number isn't really random. It's a number from a sequence based on a calculation. I've used a "mersenne twister black box" and a few other sequence calculations. See the wikipedia article.

Answer 6

a computer can create a random number. it simply picks a number randomly from its existing store.

Answer 7

using timer and a variable counter to initialize the sequence .. modern system use the RDTSC cpu opcode to get the clock counter from cpu .. and to initialize the sequence of "randon number"

Answer 8

It cant every thing is programmed using numbers, my god haven't you watched 'LOST'