Pi: Less Random Than We Thought

Sarad AV jtrjtrjtr2001 at yahoo.com
Thu May 5 05:43:35 PDT 2005


hi,

If you remember D.E Knuth's book on Semi-Numerical
Algorithms he shows some annoying subsequences of pi
in it which are far from random.

Sarad.


--- cypherpunk <cyphrpunk at gmail.com> wrote:

> This doesn't really make sense. Either the digits
> are random or they
> are not. You can't be a little bit random. Well, you
> can be, but the
> point is that you either pass the test or you don't.
> 
> If pi's digits fail a test of randomness in a
> statistically
> significant way, that is big news. If they pass it,
> then there is no
> meaningful way to compare them with another RNG that
> also passes. It's
> just a statistical quirk due to random variation as
> to which will do
> better than another on any given test.
> 
> The bottom line is still that either an RNG passes
> the tests
> acceptably or it does not. From what they say (or
> don't say), pi does
> pass. It doesn't make sense to say that other RNGs
> do better.
> 
> CP
> 
> 


		
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