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Randomness looks like white noise. You can't distinguish computer randomness (provided that it's a proper PRNG) from physical coin flips. Computers don't "even
by dchest 11y ago
Randomness looks like white noise. You can't distinguish computer randomness (provided that it's a proper PRNG) from physical coin flips. Computers don't "even out spectrum". The longer the coin flip run, the less likely it is to happen, e.g. you would need on average 2046 coin throws to get 10 heads in a row.
TL;DR probability theory
(If you have free time and want to have some fun, throw a coin and draw a picture recording throws. I once generated a password by throwing a coin for more than hundred or times — each bit taking more than 1 throw to avoid biases — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_coin#Fair_results_from_a_biased_coin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_coin#Fair_results_from_a_...)
- pakitan 11y ago> Computers don't "even out spectrum" Not "on purpose", of course. But with a bad PRNG, the probability of 10 heads in a row is lower compared to a proper PRNG so in a sense the bad one is "evening out spectrum"
- dchest 11y agoYeah, it can also be higher. Or lower. Or bad PRNG can give the same number every time. Flipping a biased coin can also produce bad randomness. I'm not going to mention every edge case in my comment ;-) Computers are trying not to produce results different from fair coin flips.