cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) (06/01/89)
In article <228@cs.columbia.edu>, mkamer@cs.columbia.edu (Matthew Kamerman) writes: ......................... > Might a pseudo-random sequence effectively achieve true randomality > if in addition to meeting all standard distribution criteria, its > period of repetition is beyond the capacity of the fastest available > computing device running for a period comparable to the age of the > universe? As far as the period of repetition goes, this is no problem at all. It is easy to construct pseudo-random sequences with arbitrary periods at reasonable computational cost, and XORing one of these to your favorite candidate should take care of that problem. But your use of standard is improper. There are so many reasonable randomness criteria that I would not believe that enough were used. I have done a simulation with approximately 25,000 bits per trial, and I can easily envision 1,000,000 bits per trial. What assurance can you give me that the standard tests will prevent erroneous results? One test the sequence will fail is the test that it was produced in the way it was. -- Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907 Phone: (317)494-6054 hrubin@l.cc.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet, UUCP)