“It is not intuitively obvious that strict randomness is difficult to achieve;

therefore let us indicate the general presence of bias where human choice or ordinary mechanical systems are involved. This will give us an intuitive insight into approaches capable of eliminating bias, and will lead finally to a working definition of randomness itself......” Brecht 1966

“How can bias be avoided? First, it can be reduced by resorting to compound chance events, and, formally, it can be eliminated by the use of random numbers.By making the chance-event a compound of two or more independent events, elements in the compound event can be made more nearly independent of each other, and thus biases can be avoided.”

Brecht, G. 1966 Chance-Imagery Ubu-Classics  Series Ed. Tencer, M.

Originally published in 1966 as a Great Bear Pamphlet by Something Else Press,

1966.

www.ubu.com

last accessed 12.01.2012

ran·dom

adjective

1.

proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern: the random selection of numbers.

2.

Statistics . of or characterizing a process of selection in which each item of a set has an equal probability of being chosen.

3.

Building Trades .

a.

(of building materials) lacking uniformity of dimensions: random shingles.

b.

(of ashlar) laid without continuous courses.

c.

constructed or applied without regularity: random bond.

4.

Informal .

a.

unknown, unidentified, or out of place: A couple of random guys showed up at the party.

b.

odd and unpredictable in an amusing way: my totally random life.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/random

last accessed 12.01.2012

“So, why is it hard to test whether a given sequence of numbers is random? The reason is that if your random number generator (or your die) is good, each possible sequence of values (or die rolls) is equally likely to appear. This means that a good random number generator will also produce sequences that look nonrandom to the human eye (e.g., a series of ten rolls of six on our die) and which also fail any statistical tests that we might expose it to. If you flip enough coins, you will get sequences of coin flips that seen in isolation from the rest of the sequence don't look random at all.”

Statistical Analysis

random.org

http://www.random.org/analysis/

last accessed 12.01.2012