Pi: Less Random Than We Thought

<i>If you wanted a random number, historically you could do worse than to pick a sequence from the string of digits in pi. But Purdue University scientists now say other sources might be better. </i>

 

Physicists including Purdue's Ephraim Fischbach have completed a study comparing the 'randomness' in pi to that produced by 30 software random-number generators and one chaos-generating physical machine. pi's digit string does not always produce randomness as effectively as manufactured generators do.

 

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