Chaotic physical systems as random number sources

E. ALLEN SMITH EALLENSMITH at ocelot.Rutgers.EDU
Tue Feb 20 16:37:35 PST 1996


	I'm curious if anyone knows of any attempts to use a chaotic physical
system (such as the famous double pendulum) as a source of random numbers. I
did an Alta Vista check on the problem, and all I turned up was a paper (in
postscript, so I couldn't read it) on all mathematical pseudorandom number
generators being logical chaotic systems. (It's at
http://csl.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~herring/publications/rand.ps).
	One problem that I can see is that of strange attractors. While the
path through each time would be different, they're still _close_ to each other,
and a practical mechanical system might not be sensitive enough to pick up the
differences.
	Thanks,
	-Allen






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