View source for A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates

{{Short description|Random number book first published in 1955}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=February 2024}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates''}}
{{Infobox book
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| name              = A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates
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| author            = [[RAND Corporation]]
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| orig_lang_code    = en
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| country           = United States
| language          = English
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| publisher         = [[Free Press (publisher)|The Free Press]]
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| published         = 1955
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[[Image:Random digits.png|right|thumb|Lines 10580–10594, columns 21–40, from ''A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates'']]
'''''A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates''''' is a [[random number book]] by the [[RAND Corporation]], originally published in 1955.  The book, consisting primarily of a [[random number table]], was an important
20th century work in the field of [[statistics]] and [[Statistical randomness|random numbers]].
==Production and background==
It was produced starting in 1947 by an electronic simulation of a [[roulette wheel]] attached to a [[computer]], the results of which were then carefully filtered and tested before being used to generate the table. The RAND table was an important breakthrough in delivering random numbers, because such a large and carefully prepared table had never before been available. In addition to being available in book form, one could also order the digits on a series of [[punched card]]s.
The table is formatted as 400 pages, each containing 50 lines of 50 digits.  Columns and lines are grouped in fives, and the lines are numbered 00000 through 19999.  The [[standard normal deviate]]s are another 200 pages (10 per line, lines 0000 through 9999), with each deviate given to three decimal places. There are 28 additional pages of [[front matter]].<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/166772 | jstor=166772 | last1=Tukey | first1=John W. | title=Reviewed work: A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates, the Rand Corporation | journal=Journal of the Operations Research Society of America | date=1955 | volume=3 | issue=4 | pages=568–571 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.2307/2333414 | doi=10.2307/2333414 | jstor=2333414 | last1=Moore | first1=P. G. | title=Reviewed work: A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates., the Rand Corporation | journal=Biometrika | date=1955 | volume=42 | issue=3/4 | page=543 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40245032 | jstor=40245032 | last1=Davis | first1=Jordan | title=A Million Random Digits | journal=New England Review (1990-) | date=2007 | volume=28 | issue=4 | pages=161–163 }}</ref>
==Utility==
The main use of the tables was in statistics and the [[experimental design]] of [[scientific experiment]]s, especially those that used the [[Monte Carlo method]]; in [[cryptography]], they have also been used as [[nothing up my sleeve number]]s, for example in the design of the [[Khufu and Khafre#Khafre|Khafre cipher]]. The book was one of the last of a series of random number tables produced from the mid-1920s to the 1950s, after which the development of high-speed computers allowed faster operation through the generation of [[pseudorandom]] numbers rather than reading them from tables.
==2001 edition==
The book was reissued in 2001 ({{ISBN|0-8330-3047-7}}) with a new foreword by RAND Executive Vice President [[Michael D. Rich]]. It has generated many humorous user reviews on [[Amazon (company)|Amazon.com]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/magazine/17FOB-Medium-t.html |first=Virginia| last=Heffernan| title=The Reviewing Stand| magazine=[[The New York Times Magazine]]| date=January 15, 2010 |accessdate=2011-03-09}}</ref>
==Sample==
The digits {{OEIS|A002205}} begin:
{{blockquote|10097 32533 &nbsp;76520 13586 &nbsp;34673 54876 &nbsp;80959 09117 &nbsp;39292 74945}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}
==Additional sources ==
* George W. Brown, "History of RAND's random digits—Summary," in A.S. Householder, G.E. Forsythe, and H.H. Germond, eds., ''Monte Carlo Method, National Bureau of Standards Applied Mathematics Series'', 12 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951): 31–32. (Available [https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/2008/P113.pdf here] for download from the RAND Corporation.)
* {{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/12/science/connoisseurs-of-chaos-offer-a-valuable-product-randomness.html| first=George| last=Johnson| title=Connoisseurs of Chaos Offer A Valuable Product: Randomness| newspaper=[[The New York Times]]| date=June 12, 2001 |accessdate=2023-03-28| page=F1| location=New York}}
== External links ==
* [https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1418.html Full text downloadable from rand.org]
* [https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/rand-million-random-digits-numbers-book-error-11600893049 A Million Random Digits' Was a Number-Cruncher's Bible. Now One Has Exposed Flaws in the Disorder. at wsj.com]
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[[Category:1955 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Probability books]]
[[Category:RAND Corporation]]
[[Category:Mathematical tables]]
[[Category:Random number generation]]