Mathematical Digest
Short Summaries of Articles about Mathematics
in the Popular Press"On a Roll," by Dana Mackenzie. New Scientist, 6 November 1999, pages44-47. Randomness is an important but elusive concept. Because random numbers exhibitno special patterns (otherwise they would not be random), mathematicians havefound it difficult to say much about them. This article discusses researchthat brings new clarity to the nature of random numbers. The research couldhave an impact on computer programming problems that involve random numbers. --- Allyn Jackson |
