It appears from what I have read that there is actually no formal definition of what "ramdom" means, and that the only thing we really know is that a certain source yields a given distribution, and there is considerable dispute over whether, in fact, one can assume that quantum-mechanical sources are "truely" random, in the sense of being unpredictable or not following laws. Have a look at: http://www.io.com/~ritter/REALRAND/REALRAND.HTM#EssenRand Sean At 03:10 PM 4/18/00 PDT, you wrote: >true random numbers (generated from radioactive decay or somesuch) are both >unpredictable AND statistically random, but they're not so easy to get. > >BillW > | | Sean Breheny | Amateur Radio Callsign: KA3YXM | Electrical Engineering Student \--------------=---------------- Save lives, please look at http://www.all.org Personal page: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/shb7 mailto:shb7@cornell.edu ICQ #: 3329174