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?

Comments

ok

[Laplace]

define random.

Yeah, I didn't think so...

Re:ok

[Laplace]

How can you generate a number "without definite aim, direction, rule, or method?"

bzzt! Try again!

Re:ok

[Laplace]

Not quite there. How is the selection made? I can take the set {0 1 2 3 4 5} and select numbers serially. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 0, 1, 2...

For a large enough series (or a small enough series divisible by 6) each item has an equal probability of being selected.

bzzzt! Try again.

Re:ok

[Laplace]

So you define randomness in terms of probability? Define what probability is. Do your best not to invoke the definition of random.

Nothing is random

[Openadvocate]

Nothing is random!
It's just you who can't comprehend/grasp what's going on!