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Rube-Goldberg Type Random Number Generators?
stercor asks: "I've been considering random number generators made with easily-available materials. Living in Oregon might suggest photoelectric cells and rain. Or something to do with slugs (generation rate IS a factor, however)
My question is what other off-the-wall shelf hare-brained brilliant ideas can other Slashdot readers come up with? Please limit ideas to ones that would actually work." When I was younger, I was always intrigued by the rigs used by most State Lotteries. You know the ones: dump balls into a chamber, throw in a fan/vacuum combination to agitate the balls and to allow a random one to shoot thru a tube when the button was pressed (basically, a high tech version of your average BINGO machine). Has anyone else seen or built a contraption that does something similar but in a weird, roundabout or weird and roundabout way?
Bury a landmine in a playground. Pin pieces of paper with numbers writen on them to the shirts of a group of kids. (more kids = more random) Proceed to feed them Cocoa Puffs, Pixie Stix, Mountain Dew, Jolt Cola, Bawls, Starbucks Espresso for several hours. Unleash their fury onto the playground. The number of the kid to find said landmine first, is your random number. Enjoy!
Viva La Revolucion! Buy a Mac!
Chicken droppings on a grid.
random: : a haphazard course
at random : without definite aim, direction, rule, or method
www.m-w.com
you know, i was just thinking exactly the same thing.
here's one other:
Post a random comment.
the number of moderation points, given a suitable comment, will probably be completely random.