Random and Pseudorandom
In Our Time13 Jan 2011

Random and Pseudorandom

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss randomness and pseudorandomness.Randomness is the mathematics of the unpredictable. Dice and roulette wheels produce random numbers: those which are unpredictable and display no pattern. But mathematicians also talk of 'pseudorandom' numbers - those which appear to be random but are not. In the last century random numbers have become enormously useful to statisticians, computer scientists and cryptographers. But true randomness is difficult to find, and mathematicians have devised many ingenious solutions to harness or simulate it. These range from the Premium Bonds computer ERNIE (whose name stands for Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) to new methods involving quantum physics.Digital computers are incapable of behaving in a truly random fashion - so instead mathematicians have taught them how to harness pseudorandomness. This technique is used daily by weather forecasters, statisticians, and computer chip designers - and it's thanks to pseudorandomness that secure credit card transactions are possible.With:Marcus du SautoyProfessor of Mathematics at the University of OxfordColva Roney-DougalSenior Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St AndrewsTimothy GowersRoyal Society Research Professor in Mathematics at the University of CambridgeProducer: Thomas Morris.

Avsnitt(1086)

Moses Mendelssohn

Moses Mendelssohn

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work and influence of the eighteenth-century philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. A prominent figure at the court of Frederick the Great, Mendelssohn was one of the m...

22 Mars 201242min

Vitruvius and De Architectura

Vitruvius and De Architectura

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Vitruvius' De Architectura. Written almost exactly two thousand years ago, Vitruvius' work is a ten-volume treatise on engineering and architecture, the only surviv...

15 Mars 201242min

Lyrical Ballads

Lyrical Ballads

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Lyrical Ballads, the collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge first published in 1798. The work was conceived as an attempt to cast off the st...

8 Mars 201242min

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Benjamin Franklin. A printer, statesman, diplomat, writer and scientist, Franklin was one of the most remarkable individuals of the eighteenth ...

1 Mars 201242min

Conductors and Semiconductors

Conductors and Semiconductors

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the physics of electrical conduction. Although electricity has been known for several hundred years, it was only in the early twentieth century that physicists firs...

23 Feb 201241min

The An Lushan Rebellion

The An Lushan Rebellion

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the An Lushan Rebellion, a major uprising against the imperial rule of the Chinese Tang Dynasty. In 755 AD a senior general, An Lushan, orchestrated a plot against ...

16 Feb 201242min

Erasmus

Erasmus

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Dutch humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus. In his lifetime Erasmus was almost universally recognised as the greatest classical scholar of h...

9 Feb 201241min

The Kama Sutra

The Kama Sutra

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Kama Sutra, one of the most celebrated and often misunderstood texts of Indian literature. Probably composed during the reign of the Gupta dynasty around 1800 y...

2 Feb 201242min

Populärt inom Historia

kod-katastrof
massmordarpodden
historiska-brott
olosta-mord
p3-historia
motiv
historiepodden-se
rss-seriemordarpodden
historianu-med-urban-lindstedt
rss-historiska-brottslingar
rss-historien-om
rss-massmordarpodden
obskyr-historia
bedragare
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
mannen-utan-spar
rss-folkets-historia
palmemordet
krigshistoriepodden
rss-borgvattnets-hemligheter