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Rube-Goldberg Type Random Number Generators?

Posted by Cliff on from the state-lotteries-got-nothing-on-these-contraptions dept.

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?

4 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. How about this... by wbav · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A button on a sidewalk somewhere. If people step on it/kids play with it, you're ensured a random number.

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    Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
  2. Here's a goofy one by Grotus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Shred a bunch of junk mail with a confetti style (cross cut) shredder, dump the resulting pieces on a scanner, then run the capture through an OCR program.

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    "From my cold, dead hands you damn, dirty apes!" - CH
  3. Seismograph by bluGill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just get a Seismograph, and return the heigh of the last reading. Sensitive enough to measure footsteps across the room, so you shouldn't have a problem if you place it right.

    I live near a freeway, so I have plenty of randomnees avaiable in the traffic going by my house.

    Warning, with this, and many other schemes you need to normalize the data. Otherwise you will tend to get larger numbers during rush hour, and smaller ones during the night. Also a big snow fall (shuts down traffic) will change the values received. Be aware of these issues, if someone else finds out what you are using to generate random numbers they may use that to break your scheme. (Even if you numbers are random, just over a smaller range)

  4. Re:The old standby: by rhk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ahh, Chicken Poop Bingo. They had that at the festivities after the 4th of July parade in Munising, MI this year.