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schip666!
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The gold standard for generating random numbers is the quantum effect of nuclear decay -- particles and photons being emitted from the atomic nucleus -- and unless you are one of those Hidden Variables types this is really random. The silver standard is thermal noise. There is a nice article in the last IEEE Spectrum magazine about Intel's on chip random number generators which use thermal noise: http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/behind-intels-new-randomnumber-generator/0
While reading that article it occurred to me that kinetic thermal noise might ultimately have quantum noise as it's source. Since heat is fundamentally energy released -- hmm, as photons? -- by chemical bonds forming or breaking, and chemical bonding is best described with Quantum Mechanics.
I realize that thermal noise is easier to model with classical kinetics, but are these two sources of unpredictability fundamentally the same?
While reading that article it occurred to me that kinetic thermal noise might ultimately have quantum noise as it's source. Since heat is fundamentally energy released -- hmm, as photons? -- by chemical bonds forming or breaking, and chemical bonding is best described with Quantum Mechanics.
I realize that thermal noise is easier to model with classical kinetics, but are these two sources of unpredictability fundamentally the same?