Randomness Definition and 136 Threads

Video on Brownian matter that got me thinking Brownian motion is a fundamental concept in physics, describing the random movement of particles suspended in a fluid. However, the apparent randomness of this motion is largely due to our limited understanding and computational power. As...

Hello, My name is Mason C. Turner and I work in the cybersecurity field. My background includes both military communications as well as private sector experience. According to the laws of physics, to the best of my understanding information and energy are directly interchangeable in a...

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I play magic the gathering in a format called commander. Each player start with a deck of card that has 99 cards in it, for simplicities sake, I'll give very simple rules. Each card is different, we have 4 players, each shuffling their deck of cards and drawing 7. Roll for who goes first...

A recent question about interpretations of probability nicely clarified the role of the Kolmogorov axioms: [... some excursions into QM, negative probabilities, and quasiprobability distributions ...] Conclusion: the Kolmogorov axioms formalize the concept of probability. They achieve this by...

Can you swap out the RNG that is the wave function collapse with a suitable deterministic chaotic process that matches the wave function (squared)? I can picture a multi leg pendulum swinging around drawing out the wave function. The point where you measure is the point the pendulum was at. Is...

Does chaos amplify inherent quantum level randomness/uncertainty to macroscopic level?

Hi,new college guy here,previewing next year's work. Been seeing these articles,written by reputed physicists. 1. https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/5/519 this one claims that quantum randomness is false.does this argument be strong enough to rule out QM's so-called randomness?I understand that...

I can remember reading something about a future experiment which alledgely could decide if there is an underlying deterministic layer governing quantum phenomena or if pure, empty chance rules suppreme (which I can't imagine). It had something to do with arrival times but I can't imagine how...

I've been learning a lot about algorithms in my AI class, senior year of my computer science degree. Some of the algorithms we talk about involve randomness. Does true randomness even exist in reality? Wouldn't everything random, have an explanation by some physical process? Is chaos random...

Some physicists (like John A Wheeler, Holger B Nielsen or Ilya Prigogine) have proposed that all the laws of physics (including the most fundamental ones) emerged from a primordial chaos (for example, in the case of Wheeler, he proposed that laws of physics emerged from an initial random and...

So from what I understand the position of an electron at any given time is based on a probability model. My question is how does gravity play a role in this model? Can we say the position of the electron is truly random? What if this "randomness" is caused gravitational forces pulling it in...

Note: This question involves both classical and quantum physics, so I didn't know where to put it. I'll start with the coin flip: People often compare electron spins to a coin flip, citing that coin flips are random. I am wondering if that is a true analogy, or just another faulty analogy...

How did you find PF?: random Brownian motion Is randomness real or is it simply defined as such due to our inability to perceive hyper complex order? Randomness is a troublesome word. I'd feel better if I knew it was an objective phenomenon and not merely a placeholder description of...

This just occurred to me and I don't expect to be the first one to address it: It is said that in a specific measurement basis, the outcome of a measurement in this basis is determined by chance. But in how far is this the case, since if the eigenvectors are for example ##\overrightarrow{A}##...

Hi all, I have some doubts regarding the Kolmogorov test: I made a simple c++ program generating two samples of random numbers following a Landau distribution (I used the "hit and miss" method). I made the Kolmogorov test, in order to check the randomness of the generator, but I'm having some...

Moderator's note: This is spin-off from https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/why-randomness-means-incomplete-understanding.975227 Reading this thread I would like to point out one aspect that makes me wonder personally and has also been mentioned here by other users. The decay of atoms...

Summary: We lack a fundamental understanding of the measurement process in quantum mechanics. Actually ever programming language has such a function, and it is executed to everyone's satisfaction. Suppose we want to create a device that faithfully simulates some aspect of Nature. To do so...

For myself is horrible to imagine that indeterministic randomness can appear in deterministic, absolutely known and visible dynamics. I have briefly look on the mathematics behind it and understand almost nothing... Well I have a very basic knowledge in mathematics. There is so-called "Rannou's...

(In order to ask my question, I need to explain a little bit. But I don't have a background in biology, so I may make some mistakes along the way. corrections are welcome.) Recently I've been thinking a lot about evolution. Its really fascinating. The random exploration of the life "phase...

In Quanta Magazine there is article on this link...

I am simulating random angles from 0 to 2π with a uniform distribution. However, if I take the differences between random angles, I get a non-uniform (monotonically decreasing) distribution of angles. In math speek: Ai = uniform(0,2π) dA = Ai - Aj dA is not uniform. Here is a rough image of...

Take one radioactive element and put a detector all around it so that you can immediately detect whenever it will undergo radioactive decay. Have a clock connected to the detector to note the "exact" instant at which the atom decays. Let's say that after 3min after the clock started counting the...

I was told of a thought experiment by a friend of mine who says that his thought experiment will either prove or disprove randomness in quantum mechanics, and this was in fact verified by several other physicists, who said that if this experiment was ever successfully carried out it would either...

How can radioactive decay be random if we can calculate aproximately when it will happen . For example we know that an isotope will decay every 2 years by calculating the half life . Doesnt that mean that the decay is systematic rather than random because we can calculate when its guna happen ...

Consider this a layman's question. I am not an expert on deeper aspects of probability. I simply rely on Kolmogorov's axioms and the calculation methods I learned as a student. To me it's just a bit of mathematics and it makes perfect sense as mathematics. When it comes to actually...

Or does ontological probability exist? I was reading an article that came up in my google searches ( https://breakingthefreewillillusion.com/ontic-probability-doesnt-exist/ ) ignore the free will philosophy stuff. But the author makes the claim that ontological probability simply does not...

The term "deterministic chaos" emphasizes that chaotic behavior is random in-practice but deterministic in-principle. But does this even make sense in a finite universe where computation is physical? There ain't no such thing as a Turing machine with an infinite tape. If computing the behavior...

Just a thought I had one day, but the general idea I've heard is that quantum mechanics has a random property to it. The number Pi is apparently a number without any sort of apparent pattern to it either, seemingly random? Could these two things somehow be related? For example somehow...

When we look at the cars on the road, it appears like where they are driving is random, their directions appear as random. But the drivers don't drive into random directions. It appears random to us because we don't know the thoughts and intentions of the drivers. If we knew almost everything...

The Wikipedia article Quantum Indeterminacy discusses the measurement problem and possible reasons why measurement values are inherently random. In the section labeled "Measurement", the Projection Postulate is briefly discussed. After explaining the Projection Postulate, in the second...

Is there a definition of "random(ness)"? Is it defined?

Some studies suggest that during photosynthesis, electrons travel all possible paths simultaneously, and then always collapse at the reaction center. My question is, doesn't that contradict quantum randomness? Shouldn't the location of the electron after the collapse be predictably random?

I often here claims that higher dimensions such as the 5th and 6th dimensions deal with different possible realities, be it branching off or from different start conditions. I find this confusing and would like to have it cleared up how it is possible for different so called realities to occur...

The universe is random or chaotic?

hope I am not totally lost here but can someone give specific examples of randomness re quantum mechanics. in my view any well constructed identical experiments that are repeated 1000 times yield the same well defined very sharp distribution of results within the precision of the experimental...

So, I am not an expert in quantum physic, I just watched a lot of videos about it. If I understand correctly, particles do not have a particular position as long as you don't observe them. With a certain equation, we can draw a cloud of probabilities which describes how likely the particle is...

Does randomness exist in nature? We say every event must abide by the laws of nature, including QM probability/uncertainty. QM says outcomes are uncertain. Does uncertainty imply both randomness and probability? It seems that randomness is superfluous to the uncertainty principle, and it makes...

I was wondering. In this example I use polarized photons, but maybe it is applicable to electrons and spin also. We can prepare two completely unentangled polarized photons, and send them in opposite directions to two detectors preceded by a filter at particular angles. Both of them will show a...

I found a couple of closed threads related to the definition of randomness, but my question is slightly different. Is there a mathematical way to express the fact that randomness is the eye of the beholder? For example, if I give a sequence of 1000 numbers such that you cannot predict the...

Hi Everyone. This thread relates to the ongoing debate as to whether or not time has a beginning and other related debates. As I see it, a beginning of time would imply the past existence of a very first cause which was not the effect of a previous cause. Who agrees and who disagrees with this...

As you might know there is no such thing as true randomness, which means everything happens for a reason. Let's say everything with the exactly same input will always return the exactly same output if you repeat it, no matter if there is a computer or a human being. Much might seem random, but...

This may be a dumb question, but maybe someone can help me out: Consider a pair of entangled photons A and B, fired at respectively Alice and Bob who both let it go through a polarisation filter at different angles. Now Alice establishes that half of the photons get through her filter, and half...

So I've read from various places that maximal compression produces a truly random output. But suppose you were going to apply compression to a truly random series of numbers with something like LZW. Well wouldn't it be the case that since randomness often produces sequences which do not appear...

From the elementary particles that science has been able to identify until now, are there any that appear to be useless, at least as far as we know? Or do all the identified particles play a role in the grand scheme of the universe?

Hi, I was just wondering if the following can be viewed as an explanation for randomness in quantum events. My knowledge of quantum physics is not all that good. I've got a bit of philosophical bent, which is the source of my interest. Anyways... Assume that when particles interact, what...

This might be a silly question but when people say that something on the quantum level is completely "random," (except for general probability) does that mean, according to theory at least, if you were to go back in time and repeat an experiment exactly that the results could just as easily be...

I know that matter can only exist in one state at a time; however at the quantum level knowing what state it is in at a set time is impossible to know for sure until you look at the system. Like with how Schrodinger cat is in a state of randomness between the two states of dead and alive until...

I wish to understand something about randomness and Pseudorandomness. In particular, given a set of "seemingly-random" numbers, what can one do to analyse as to whether they are randomly generated numbers or just a pseudorandom sequence. Can somebody point me to Good, pedagogical Referances in...

I have dice whit starting temperature of 0 K in vacuum and its displaying number 1 ,after drop it displays number 6 (for example) . Now if we reverse time, will dice sitting still on surface return to original position (displaying number one ) or it will display different random number ?