Message-Id: <m0yHYhh-000S3AC@inti.gov.ar>
Comments: Authenticated sender is <salvador AT natacha DOT inti DOT gov DOT ar>
From: "Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET)" <salvador AT inti DOT gov DOT ar>
Organization: INTI
To: Francois Charton <deef AT pobox DOT oleane DOT com>, djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 15:48:27 +0000
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Subject: Re: real random numbers
In-reply-to: <3517F669.53B2@pobox.oleane.com>
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Francois Charton <deef AT pobox DOT oleane DOT com> wrote:
> Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET) wrote:
> > 
> > I wrote:
> > 
> > > I really doubt that such an AD system would produce a desirably random
> > > series of numbers, ie a series which pass classical tests for randomness.
> > > Has anyone tries it?
> > 
> > Are you kidding! The noise generated in a diode junction IS NOISE and is
> > generated by the combination of electrones, if you can predict it ... man
> > you'll gain the next 100 Nobel prices ;-))). 
> 
> 
> Probably. But unpredictable does not mean random. Many phenomena known as 
> "noisy" or "chaotic", though absolutely unpredictable, still can show 
> intrinsic correlations which disqualify them as random sources. If I 
> remember correctly, Knuth even quotes the example of time between blips 
> on a Geiger counter (quantic noise, right?) as one of a *bad* RNG... In 
> mathematics, the series of primes is a well known example of non 
> predictable series (ie there is no formula giving the value of the next 
> one from that of the previous), however, it is known to possess many 
> statistical characteristics which do not make it predictable, but ruins 
> it as a "random" series.
> 
> Randomness is a pure mathematical concept. The only way to know whether a 
> series is random or not is to test it. Hence my question: has anyone 
> tried to test such a "natural noise series" to classical tests for random 
> numbers (Knuth's spectral test for instance)? It would be a good way to 
> know whether such natural noise sources make good RNG or not (but again, 
> I suspect the latter).

I never runned a test over the values. 

SET 
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