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How do you build a completely analog "random" system? Building a regular one is easy, building one that might seem random because of how many regular ones are t
by bombcar 1y ago
How do you build a completely analog "random" system? Building a regular one is easy, building one that might seem random because of how many regular ones are tied together ... but true sources of entropy?
- LeoPanthera 1y agoI would imagine that analogue randomness is easier than doing it in a deterministic digital system. Surely there are all sorts of creative methods. Dice or coins in a box? A ball falling through a galton board? Sampling a double-pendulum? Floating particles in a heated liquid?
- bombcar 1y agoAll of those things I know how to use - if I have some sort of digital measuring device watching/monitoring them. How do I make a mechanical thing happen at a random time with a lava lamp? The ball on the board with a hole might be something I could figure out …
- addaon 1y ago> How do I make a mechanical thing happen at a random time with a lava lamp? Use a heat lamp interrupted by the lava globules to activate a wax motor. If you get the angles right you can probably do this with the same light that runs the lamp itself, or you can put another lamp at a 90° angle (but will have to adjust the main lamp to keep the total heat at the level you want). Or do similar with muscle wire; more temperature needed to trigger the actuator, but you can get them much smaller so the total heat can be smaller, if you run e.g. a collimated infrared laser as your heater across the lamp.
- cluckindan 1y agoHeat and fluids are great sources of randomness, so you use a lava lamp.