formation, from University of Chicago Center for Cosmological Physics.
This Wired article is a wonderful example about how unpractical our country’s basic math education is.
The reporter wastes the first page on his idiot attempt to find a truly random playlist. A little knowledge is a highly dangerous thing. After learning that computer generated random numbers are not truly random, he assumes that this is why he sometimes gets his Rolling Stones songs clumped together.
The limitations of pseudorandomness is a serious issue in statistical physics (Monte Carlo simulations) and theoretical physics (modeling). In some cases, poor psuedorandom number generators have allowed people break encryption algorithms.
But even the most primitive random number generator causing a problem with your iPod playlist? C’mon!
One difficult issue when looking at maps of the large scale structure of the universe is that our eyes detect spurious filaments (chains of galactic structures) that aren’t there, even though such things have been found to exist.
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