This is for your entertainment only, anything you see here will not be assessed unless we cover it in class anyway.

Diversion 5: Random numbers

Generating truly random numbers is not as easy as it sounds. Using a radioactive source is one way of doing it:

 
Random Numbers - Numberphile

 
 
  ... see the outcome in the second part (we'll cover the Gaussian distribution and its transformations later):

 
Random Numbers (the next bit) - Numberphile

 
 
  Another way is using atmospheric noise, this is how random.org works.

 
 
  Here are four quite interesting random variables:

 
The Most Powerful Dice - Numberphile

 
 
  And finally a curious distribution that helped spotting suspicious economic data:

 
Benford's Law - How mathematics can detect fraud!


 
 
 

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