Just wanted to say thanks for the great links and information guys :)
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Just wanted to say thanks for the great links and information guys :)
We created a random numbers application with a big fish tank we have at the office and a few camera-movementsensors. According the activity in the tank the cameras submit different values.
I read somewhere that something similar could be created with lavalamps. I also saw once a app that would record the way the user moves the mouse and uses those values.
Always need something external, natural, unpredictable.
Who cares?Quote:
Originally Posted by martin47
...this thread is 5 months old.
I care.
Nothing is random. Even if I said "spammanator" it would not be random. There would be something in my mind that triggered me to say that. Therefore random = predetermined.
Lighten up. At least he had something to say.Quote:
Originally Posted by hanratty21
54!
*sorry for keeping this thread alive*
Keep in mind the idea of actual randomness is a characteristic of intelligence. Scientists made a big to do when they made a face on a computer generate genuinely random facial expressions (so they claim). They hailed this is a huge step toward artificial intelligence.
you do realise that this thread is a year old?
instead of having giant bold usernames we should have giant bold post-dates!
oh, and radioactive decay is random. if it wasn't then the universe could not have originated from a single point, because without random the entire universe would be evenly distributed today.
But this thread is at least much more interesting than others :)
@Joshman:
predetermined != predictable, and randomness is more about predictabality,
isn't it ?
Btw, they've overworked the help in flash8 about Math.random,
it now reads:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash8Help
I think all new computers should come with a few grams of radioactive material and a geiger counter, internaly or as a usb dongle, so you can bring it along with you:
http://www.sfj29er.com/images/random-usb.png
ihoss dont get mad at me I didn't revive it, just donated some blood!
and if radioactive decay is random, how can it be used for telling time. Is it just the half life is constant but the actual rate of decay changes along the way?
radioactive decay isn't used for telling the time. The halflife is the time it takes for half of a sample material to turn into something else, for carbon-14 its 5730 years. That is general value, its like saying that every 6th time you throw a dice you get a 6. If you threw the dice 6000 then you would get a six 1000.
for any material it takes the time of its halflife (lets say 1 hour) to have half the mass left of the original (lets say 1kg). So after 1 hour you would have 500g, after 2 hours you would have 250g, after 3 hours you would have 125g and so on.
an atom clock has nothing to do with radioactivity, and works by mesuring the time it takes an atom to absorb energy and release it as light again. This occurs in the electron shells, not in the nucleus as radioactive decay does.
ohhh ok. I remember an experiment where they took radioactive material into space to test Einsteins theory that the faster objects move the less time that passes for them. Apparently the material decayed "slower" than it should have were it on earth. That's was I was thinking about.
yes, thats radioactive dating (no, not what your thinking...) using halflife.
*2Quote:
Originally Posted by bvgroote
=
108