I have begun reading "quantum theory: a very short introduction"
I doubt that I will be making much progress in my project during the next few weeks because I will be preparing for the maths admissions test for Oxford university. Doing this and also keeping on top of school work may mean that I will have to not do as much extended project work as I would like to. I'll jus have to see how it goes. I need to arrange another meeting with my supervisor because the last meeting did not take place.
Saturday, 9 October 2010
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Half way through Random Number Generators
Here is what I have so far:
"One day, I was sitting in my maths class fiddling with my calculator when I came across a button called Ran#. I realised that if I typed in a number and pressed this button, the calculator would randomly produce a number between zero and the number that I typed. But how could this be? Calculators use algorithms to perform functions so does this mean that there is an algorithm to produce random numbers? If so, random must not exists because the fact that there is an algorithm to produce a random sequence completely undermines the concept of randomness.
After some research, I came across a website called Random.org which claimed to be a “True Random Number Service”. The website discussed how computer and calculator programs use “pseudorandom number generators” which is less effective than this website because they use the randomness from “atmospheric noise”. Wikipedia defines atmospheric noise as “radio noise caused by natural atmospheric processes, primarily lightning discharges in thunderstorms”. Pseudorandom number generators are algorithms that are not entirely random but produce a set of numbers that pass all tests for randomness. So, there are certain properties that a sequence must have for it to be random. The fact that people are aware of this and it is possible to create sequences that could be classed as random shows that although one cannot predict a random sequence, a sequence can be made that is identified as random.
American mathematician Robert R. Coveyou stated that “The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.” This is an incredibly intriguing quote. "
I'm finding it very difficult to word things well in this section. Also, I'm not too sure of the message that I actually what to get across in this section. I have all the quotes and sources but what do I actually want to acheive?
Anyway, as I keep saying, HOPEFULLY this will be finished soon. I have a meeting with my supervisor in about half an hour so will blog about how that goes soon.
"One day, I was sitting in my maths class fiddling with my calculator when I came across a button called Ran#. I realised that if I typed in a number and pressed this button, the calculator would randomly produce a number between zero and the number that I typed. But how could this be? Calculators use algorithms to perform functions so does this mean that there is an algorithm to produce random numbers? If so, random must not exists because the fact that there is an algorithm to produce a random sequence completely undermines the concept of randomness.
After some research, I came across a website called Random.org which claimed to be a “True Random Number Service”. The website discussed how computer and calculator programs use “pseudorandom number generators” which is less effective than this website because they use the randomness from “atmospheric noise”. Wikipedia defines atmospheric noise as “radio noise caused by natural atmospheric processes, primarily lightning discharges in thunderstorms”. Pseudorandom number generators are algorithms that are not entirely random but produce a set of numbers that pass all tests for randomness. So, there are certain properties that a sequence must have for it to be random. The fact that people are aware of this and it is possible to create sequences that could be classed as random shows that although one cannot predict a random sequence, a sequence can be made that is identified as random.
American mathematician Robert R. Coveyou stated that “The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.” This is an incredibly intriguing quote. "
I'm finding it very difficult to word things well in this section. Also, I'm not too sure of the message that I actually what to get across in this section. I have all the quotes and sources but what do I actually want to acheive?
Anyway, as I keep saying, HOPEFULLY this will be finished soon. I have a meeting with my supervisor in about half an hour so will blog about how that goes soon.
Writing "Random Number Generators"
I am just writing about algorithms and came across a relevant quote that I found a while ago. The quote itself doesn't matter at the moment, but the website that it is from is called scholarpedia.org.uk. I decided to Google the website just to see if it had any connection to wikipedia and the actual description for scholarpedia is:
"Scholarpedia feels and looks like Wikipedia -- the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Indeed, both are powered by the same program -- MediaWiki. Both allow visitors to review and modify articles simply by clicking on the edit this article link.
However, Scholarpedia differs from Wikipedia in some very important ways:
Each article is written by an expert (elected by the public or invited by Scholarpedia editors).
Each article is anonymously peer reviewed to ensure accurate and reliable information.
Each article has a curator -- typically its author -- who is responsible for its content.
Any modification of the article needs to be approved by the curator before it appears in the final, approved version."
This implies that scholarpedia is a more accurate and reliable version of wikipedia. For future references, I will be using scholarpedia rather than wikipedia to look up things.
"Scholarpedia feels and looks like Wikipedia -- the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Indeed, both are powered by the same program -- MediaWiki. Both allow visitors to review and modify articles simply by clicking on the edit this article link.
However, Scholarpedia differs from Wikipedia in some very important ways:
Each article is written by an expert (elected by the public or invited by Scholarpedia editors).
Each article is anonymously peer reviewed to ensure accurate and reliable information.
Each article has a curator -- typically its author -- who is responsible for its content.
Any modification of the article needs to be approved by the curator before it appears in the final, approved version."
This implies that scholarpedia is a more accurate and reliable version of wikipedia. For future references, I will be using scholarpedia rather than wikipedia to look up things.
Monday, 4 October 2010
Atmospheric Noise (a method of generating random numbers)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_noise
"Atmospheric noise is radio noise caused by natural atmospheric processes, primarily lightning discharges in thunderstorms.
Atmospheric noise is mainly caused by cloud-to-ground flashes as the current is much stronger than for cloud-to-cloud flashes. On a worldwide scale, eight million lightning flashes occur daily. This is about 100 lightning flashes per second.
The sum of all these lightning flashes results in atmospheric noise. It can be observed[1] with a radio receiver in the form of a combination of white noise (coming from distant thunderstorms) and impulse noise (coming from a near thunderstorm). The power-sum varies with seasons and nearness of thunderstorm centers.
Atmospheric noise and variation is also used to generate high quality random numbers. Random numbers have interesting applications in the security domain."
"Atmospheric noise is radio noise caused by natural atmospheric processes, primarily lightning discharges in thunderstorms.
Atmospheric noise is mainly caused by cloud-to-ground flashes as the current is much stronger than for cloud-to-cloud flashes. On a worldwide scale, eight million lightning flashes occur daily. This is about 100 lightning flashes per second.
The sum of all these lightning flashes results in atmospheric noise. It can be observed[1] with a radio receiver in the form of a combination of white noise (coming from distant thunderstorms) and impulse noise (coming from a near thunderstorm). The power-sum varies with seasons and nearness of thunderstorm centers.
Atmospheric noise and variation is also used to generate high quality random numbers. Random numbers have interesting applications in the security domain."
I have just borrowed the remaining three books from the school library! They have allowed to to keep them until December (when the Extended Project will end). Hopefully I have everything I need to just work and work on my project and finish everything.
I am in the school library right now, and my lesson starts in 10 minutes but I will try and write more of the Random Number Generator section now.
HOPEFULLY I will be able to get it finished soon!
I am in the school library right now, and my lesson starts in 10 minutes but I will try and write more of the Random Number Generator section now.
HOPEFULLY I will be able to get it finished soon!
Saturday, 2 October 2010
Right...
Up to date GANTT chart:
OKAY.
Tasks for this week:
1) Write Random Number Generators section.
2) Don't read the quantum physics books just yet - focus on starting to read Chaos again (as I stopped reading this over the summer so I could get other tasks done).
3) Take out Does God Play Dice?, Quantum Theory and Introduction to random time and quantum randomness from the school library.
OKAY.
Tasks for this week:
1) Write Random Number Generators section.
2) Don't read the quantum physics books just yet - focus on starting to read Chaos again (as I stopped reading this over the summer so I could get other tasks done).
3) Take out Does God Play Dice?, Quantum Theory and Introduction to random time and quantum randomness from the school library.
Friday, 1 October 2010
So I haven't managed to get much done this week, which is extremely disappointing. My laptop is still not working and it seems as though I haven't had time to anything other than schoolwork. On top of that, I've been doing my university application that needs to be submitted in a couple of weeks. As a result of this, my extended project has not been high in my list of priorities. I have begun reading Quantum (well, the chapter that seems most relevant) but there's my much to comment on right now. On a brighter note, my school library have bought the remaining books that I need.
Tomorrow, my plan is to go to muswell hill library and use their computer to write the random number generators section and update my GANTT chart (which I am definitely behind on). I hope to get this project back on track and really work hard to get all the research done.
Tomorrow, my plan is to go to muswell hill library and use their computer to write the random number generators section and update my GANTT chart (which I am definitely behind on). I hope to get this project back on track and really work hard to get all the research done.
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