Science News, November 9th, 1991
Random numbers are a precious commodity. They're widely used but difficult to conjure up.
Scientists, engineers and statisticians use random numbers -- ideally, patternless strings of digits -- for tackling a wide range of problems, from modeling molecular behavior to analyzing the statistical significance of data. Consider, for instance, the problem of determining how much and what wavelengths of light escape a star's atmosphere. To find an answer, astrophysicists can simulate the process, using a computer to track a large number of photons as they interact with atoms. For each of the myri...
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