Uses of Randomness

Random number generators are used in all sorts of places in computing. Whenever you send an email, play a video game or listen to music you are interacting with randomness!

Internet cryptography makes use of randomness, and is the place where rng is most widely used in day-to-day life. For example, when somebody sends a communication or connects to a website, a session key is created to identify the particular connection. The key must be random, or else it can be manipulated, and somebody could gain access to another session’s information and steal potentially private information.

Randomness is also used in games. Random numbers can be used in creating the layout for a map, populating a map with enemies and with filling a game with random loot. It can also be used in calculations within the game, such as calculating whether or not you will damage an enemy according to a percentage chance.

When you shuffle music in your playlist some form of randomness is also used to randomly select songs to play. Some systems even make use of machine learning, to play new songs that are similar to your favourites.

It’s also used in scientific computing. When scientists make simulations of things, for example the solar system or weather, they need some way of randomising variables in a way that represents the unpredictability of nature.

So randomness is used absolutely everywhere in our modern world. From secure passwords to sweet tunes, bluetooth to banking, nearly every aspect of life involving computers makes use of random numbers.