Geiger Counter for random numbers
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Posts: 46,084
I've read in several places about using input from a
Geiger Counter for random number generation. However,
I haven't seen any Geiger Counters priced in the
hobbyist range. (I do controls engineering for a
living, but my company's customers would probably be
concerned if there was a Geiger Counter on our
equipment). Where can I get a cheap Geiger Counter (or
a worse sense of timing)?
Bob Pence
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Geiger Counter for random number generation. However,
I haven't seen any Geiger Counters priced in the
hobbyist range. (I do controls engineering for a
living, but my company's customers would probably be
concerned if there was a Geiger Counter on our
equipment). Where can I get a cheap Geiger Counter (or
a worse sense of timing)?
Bob Pence
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
Comments
find it easy to hook up to the stamp.
As for bad timing - I hear Steve Martin is not so good on stage ;-)
Regards,
Tony Wells
Original Message
From: "Pence Bob" <bobpence_2000@y...>
To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 4:49 PM
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Geiger Counter for random numbers
> I've read in several places about using input from a
> Geiger Counter for random number generation. However,
> I haven't seen any Geiger Counters priced in the
> hobbyist range. (I do controls engineering for a
> living, but my company's customers would probably be
> concerned if there was a Geiger Counter on our
> equipment). Where can I get a cheap Geiger Counter (or
> a worse sense of timing)?
>
> Bob Pence
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
> http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
>
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
> basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
Body of the message will be ignored.
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
instead of the hardware complexity of a radioactive source, Geiger
counter, and adjusting for 'dead time' of Poisson-distributed Geiger
pulses. Repeating myself ...
--- Sent to basicstamps on 4/27/02 ---
A software Pseudo Random Binary Sequence (PRBS) generator of N bits can
be programmed to produce a series of random numbers that repeats only
after 2^N-1 numbers. It works by XORing certain bits and feeding back
the results to a software shift register. The entire generator is a
byte, word, or multiple words, for greater length, so this is an
efficient program for a Stamp. I've used this approach on many machines
to generate psuedorandom noise. For a really long sequence, 3 32-bit
sequences can be used together to produce a nonrepeating sequence that
repeats after 2^94 numbers. That's a long sequence. The universe is
<less than> 2^49 seconds old.
--- End of repeated section ---
Information on PRBS generation is found in Horowitz & Hill, "The Art of
Electronics", 2nd Ed, Cambridge U Press, New York, 1989, among other
sources.
Dennis
(Former nuclear physics grad student before switching to biophysics
decades ago.)
Original Message
From: Pence Bob [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=P7ntrd5EGkbKBY7BsfB4Q1JTuDMB-J3II30m_c_KUfuXKZC_mD5L6ABsTE9STPof3AGdcQAaYj6givTCfI_VrVtu]bobpence_2000@y...[/url
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 8:50 AM
To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Geiger Counter for random numbers
I've read in several places about using input from a
Geiger Counter for random number generation. However,
I haven't seen any Geiger Counters priced in the
hobbyist range. (I do controls engineering for a
living, but my company's customers would probably be
concerned if there was a Geiger Counter on our
equipment). Where can I get a cheap Geiger Counter (or
a worse sense of timing)?
Bob Pence
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject
and Body of the message will be ignored.
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/