Easter Island: Relief: …the extremely deep crater of Rano Kao, which is about 3,000 feet (900 metres) wide, is piped to Hanga Roa. The coast is formed by soft, eroded, ashy cliffs, with a vertical drop of about 500 to 1,000 feet (150 to 300 metres); the cliffs are intercepted by long stretches…

pickerel frog, (Rana palustris), dark-spotted frog (family Ranidae), found in eastern North America, usually in such areas as meadows, cool streams, and sphagnum bogs. The pickerel frog is about 5 to 7.5 centimetres (2 to 3 inches) long and has lengthwise rows of squarish spots on its golden or

leopard frog: …the 1960s several populations of R. pipiens from Vermont to Minnesota experienced major population crashes. The reason for these declines is not completely known; however, pollution, habitat loss, increases in ultraviolet radiation resulting from the thinning of the ozone layer, disease, and overharvesting by laboratories and collectors are often cited.

India: Subjugation of Rajasthan: Later, his son Rana Pratap Singh, following his defeat by the Mughals at Haldighat (1576), continued to raid until his death in 1597, when his son Amar Singh assumed the mantle. The fall of Chitor and then of Ranthambor (1569) brought almost all of Rajasthan under Akbar’s suzerainty.

marsh frog, (Rana ridibunda), large aquatic frog of the “true frog” family Ranidae, occurring naturally from the France to the Urals and by introduction in southern England. This species seldom occurs more than 1 to 2 metres (3 to 6.5 feet) from the edge of permanent water. It is the largest of the

Bābur: Victories in India: …extensive resources, while in Rajasthan Rana Sanga of Mewar (Udaipur) was head of a powerful confederacy threatening the whole Muslim position in northern India. Bābur’s first problem was that his own followers, suffering from the heat and disheartened by the hostile surroundings, wished to return home as Timur had done.…

Bābur: Victories in India: …extensive resources, while in Rajasthan Rana Sanga of Mewar (Udaipur) was head of a powerful confederacy threatening the whole Muslim position in northern India. Bābur’s first problem was that his own followers, suffering from the heat and disheartened by the hostile surroundings, wished to return home as Timur had done.…

wood frog, (Rana sylvatica), terrestrial frog (family Ranidae) of forests and woodlands. It is a cool-climate species that occurs from the northeastern quarter of the United States and throughout most of Canada to central and southern Alaska. The wood frog is tan to brown with a distinctly dark

common frog, (species Rana temporaria), largely terrestrial frog (family Ranidae), native to Europe, from Great Britain to central Russia. It is known in continental Europe as either grass frog or russet frog. The common frog is smooth-skinned, and adults are 7 to 10 cm (2.8 to 3.9 inches) long.

Mahadev Govind Ranade was one of India’s Citpavan Brahmans of Maharashtra who was a judge of the High Court of Bombay, a noted historian, and an active participant in social and economic reform movements. During his seven years as a judge in Bombay (now Mumbai), Ranade worked for social reform in

Riau Islands: Geography: …[1,163 metres]), on Lingga, and Mount Ranai (3,146 feet [959 metres]), on Great Natuna. Mangrove swamps are common along the coasts, except in the Anambas archipelago, where most of the islands have a steep, rocky, but forested shoreline. The province has no major rivers; rather, the islands are drained by…

Flavien Ranaivo was a lyric poet deeply influenced by Malagasy ballad and song forms, in particular the hain-teny, a poetic dialogue usually on the subject of love. Ranaivo also held a number of important civic and government posts. Educated at the Lycae Gallieri in Tananarive (now Antananarivo),

Nachman Krochmal was a Jewish scholar and philosopher; his major, seminal work, Moreh nevukhe ha-zeman (1851; “Guide for the Perplexed of Our Time”), made pioneering contributions in the areas of Jewish religion, literature, and especially history. Krochmal was married at the age of 14 (according

Sonic Youth: ), Lee Ranaldo (b. February 3, 1956, Glen Cove, New York), Thurston Moore (b. July 25, 1958, Coral Gables, Florida), and Steve Shelley (b. June 23, 1962, Midland, Michigan).

Norodom Sihanouk: His son, Norodom Ranariddh, served as first prime minister until 1997, when he was overthrown in a coup by Hun Sen, who nevertheless left Sihanouk on the throne.

Merina: …his wife and successor, Queen Ranavalona I (reigned 1828–61), but it was revived under King Radama II (reigned 1861–63). The authority of the crown over the contentious Merina nobility was reinforced during the reigns of queens Rasoherina (reigned 1863–68) and Ranavalona II (reigned 1868–83) by the creation of a royal…

iridovirus: Lymphocystivirus, Ranavirus, and Megalocytivirus. Type species of the family include invertebrate iridescent virus 6 (Iridovirus), which infects insects; lymphocystis disease virus 1 (Lymphocystivirus), which infects fish; and frog virus 3 (Ranavirus), which infects amphibians.

Rancagua, city, north-central Chile. It lies in the Andean foothills along the Cachapoal River, south of Santiago. Founded as Villa Santa Cruz de Triana by José Antonio Manso de Velasco in 1743, the city was later renamed Rancagua. The Battle of Rancagua (October 2, 1814), in which Bernardo

Bernardo O’Higgins: In October 1814, at Rancagua, the Chilean patriots led by him lost decisively to the royalist forces, which, for the next three years, occupied the country.

Rance River, river, rising in the Landes du Mené, a chain of hills in Côtes-d’Armor département, Brittany région, western France. It flows for 60 miles (97 km) past Dinan to form an estuary on the Brittany coast of the English Channel at Saint-Malo, where the world’s first large-scale tidal plant,

Armand-Jean Le Bouthillier de Rancé was a French abbot who revived the Cistercian abbey of La Trappe, influenced the establishment of several important monasteries, and founded the reformed Cistercians, called Trappists, a community practicing extreme austerity of diet, penitential exercises, and,

Myanmar: World War II and after: …hastily sent the more conciliatory Sir Hubert Rance to head the administration. Rance regained for the British the trust of Aung San and the general public. When the war ended, the military administration was withdrawn, and Rance was replaced by the former civilian governor, who formed a cabinet consisting of…

ranch, a farm, usually large, devoted to the breeding and raising of cattle, sheep, or horses on rangeland. Ranch farming, or ranching, originated in the imposition of European livestock-farming techniques onto the vast open grasslands of the New World. Spanish settlers introduced cattle and horses

ranch house, type of residential building, characteristically built on one level, having a low roof and a rectangular open plan, with relatively little conventional demarcation of living areas. When the settlers of the western United States abandoned their original log cabins, sod houses, and

Ashton Kutcher: Stardom: …player in the Netflix sitcom The Ranch. Kutcher later starred opposite Reese Witherspoon in Your Place or Mine (2023), a rom-com about two best friends who eventually embark on a romantic relationship.

Chavela Vargas: …and revolutionary interpretations of Mexico’s ranchera songs. Ranchera music was typically sung in a sentimental style by men accompanied by guitars, trumpets, and other instruments, but Vargas performed in a stripped-down fashion with only a guitar and sang with raw emotion.

Cáhita: …settlements called by the Spaniards rancherías, loose clusters of houses, usually of unrelated households. Each ranchería was autonomous, with an elder or group of elders as peacetime authorities. In time of war, however, the rancherías united in strong territorial tribal organizations.

Italian literature: Poetry after World War II: …his ancestral Veneto dialect; and Michele Ranchetti, who between 1938 and 1986 produced a single book of philosophic poetry, La mente musicale (1988; “The Musical Mind”).

Ranchi, city, capital of Jharkhand state, northeastern India. It lies along the Subarnarekha River. Ranchi was constituted a municipality in 1869. The city has major rail and road connections and is the centre of the region’s agricultural, cotton, and tea trade. Silk production and the manufacture

Chota Nagpur: …the collective name for the Ranchi, Hazaribagh, and Kodarma plateaus, which collectively have an area of 25,293 square miles (65,509 square km). Its largest division is the Ranchi Plateau, which has an average elevation of about 2,300 feet (700 metres). The Chota Nagpur plateau in its entirety lies between the…

ranch, a farm, usually large, devoted to the breeding and raising of cattle, sheep, or horses on rangeland. Ranch farming, or ranching, originated in the imposition of European livestock-farming techniques onto the vast open grasslands of the New World. Spanish settlers introduced cattle and horses

Argentina: The Pampas: …the estancias were widely dispersed ranchos, or simple adobe houses with dooryard gardens, which served as the headquarters of the estancieros. The gauchos were housed in more primitive huts or lean-tos. In addition, there were small pulperías, centrally located inns where marketing, banking, eating and drinking, and other functions took…

Argentina: Housing of Argentina: …substandard housing in tenements or shantytowns. More than two-fifths of homes in the city of Buenos Aires are rented. Apartments and condominiums account for three-fourths of homes in the capital but only about one-eighth of those in the surrounding suburbs. At least one-fifth of Argentines occupy substandard housing, lacking indoor…

Rancho Cucamonga, city, San Bernardino county, southern California, U.S. Part of the “Inland Empire” region (comprising San Bernardino and Riverside counties), it is located on an alluvial plain near the eastern end of the San Gabriel Mountains, 37 miles (60 km) east of central Los Angeles. The

Limeira, city, east-central São Paulo estado (state), Brazil, on the headwaters of Tatu Stream, a tributary of the Piracicaba River. Known at various times as Tatuibi, Rancho de Limeira, and Nossa Senhora das Dores de Tatuibi, it was elevated to city status in 1863. Limeira processes local crops

Frank Perry: …a Swing (1974), Perry directed Rancho Deluxe (1975), which was scripted by Thomas McGuane. The offbeat contemporary western centres on two cattle rustlers (Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston) who set their sights on a wealthy rancher (Clifton James). Perry, who occasionally worked in television, then made Dummy (1979), an acclaimed…

Henri Pittier National Park, park in the Cordillera de la Costa, Aragua estado (state), Venezuela, occupying an area of 350 sq mi (900 sq km) between Lago (lake) de Valencia and the Caribbean. It is Venezuela’s oldest national park. It was established in 1937, largely through the efforts of Henri

La Brea Tar Pits, tar (Spanish brea) pits, in Hancock Park (Rancho La Brea), Los Angeles, California, U.S. The area was the site of “pitch springs” oozing crude oil that was used by local Indians for waterproofing. Gaspar de Portolá’s expedition in 1769 explored the area, which encompasses about 20

Fritz Lang: Films of the 1950s: With Rancho Notorious (1952) Lang hit his stride again. Made for RKO, the quirky noirish western starred Marlene Dietrich as the hard-boiled owner (and chanteuse) of an outlaw hideout. A revenge-driven cowboy (Arthur Kennedy) wangles an invitation to the hideout from a gunslinger (Mel Ferrer), leading…

rancidity, condition produced by aerial oxidation of unsaturated fat present in foods and other products, marked by unpleasant odour or flavour. When a fatty substance is exposed to air, its unsaturated components are converted into hydroperoxides, which break down into volatile aldehydes, esters,

Jacques Rancière is an Algerian-born French philosopher who made important contributions to political philosophy, the philosophy of education, and aesthetics from the late 20th century. Rancière studied philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris under the structuralist Marxist philosopher

Des Plaines, city, Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. Lying on the Des Plaines River, it is a suburb of Chicago, 17 miles (27 km) northwest of downtown. The area was originally inhabited by Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Ojibwa peoples. Settled in 1835 by Socrates Rand of Massachusetts, for whom the

rand, monetary unit of South Africa. Each rand is divided into 100 cents. The South African Reserve Bank has the exclusive authority to issue coins and banknotes in the country. Coins range in denomination from 5 cents to 50 rand. Banknotes are denominated in values from 10 to 200 rand. During the

RAND Corporation, nonpartisan think tank whose original focus was national security. It grew out of a research-and-development project (its name is a contraction of “research and development”) by Douglas Aircraft Co. for the Army Air Force in 1945. In 1948 it became a private nonprofit corporation.

Rand Daily Mail, former English-language newspaper published in Johannesburg. It crusaded against South Africa’s racial segregation but, because of financial losses, ceased publication in 1985. The Rand Daily Mail, founded in 1902, pioneered in popular journalism, introducing illustrations and

Rand McNally & Company, American publisher and printer of maps, atlases, globes, and tourist guidebooks; its headquarters are in Skokie, Illinois. Founded in 1856 by William H. Rand and Andrew McNally and incorporated in 1873, it is the oldest firm of its kind in the country and one of the world’s

Daniel Burnham: Burnham & Root: …Rookery (completed 1886), the second Rand McNally Building (completed 1890, demolished 1911), the Monadnock Building (completed 1891), and the Masonic Temple (completed 1892). Finished a year after William Le Baron Jenney’s Home Insurance Building (completed 1885), which was the first building to use structural steel members for partial support, the…

Germiston: …mines is recovered at the Rand Refinery Limited (established 1921), the largest in the world. Other industries include smelting, cotton-ginning, and varied manufactures. Pop. (2001) 139,721.

Johannesburg: Challenge by white workers: …people died in the “Rand Revolt,” including 30 Blacks murdered by strikers.

Ayn Rand was a Russian-born American writer whose commercially successful novels promoting individualism and laissez-faire capitalism were influential among conservatives and libertarians and popular among generations of young people in the United States from the mid-20th century. Her father,

Mary Rand is a British track-and-field athlete, who won a gold medal in the long jump at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo to become the first British woman to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field. Rand competed at the 1960 Games in Rome, finishing ninth in the long jump after a strong start. In

Paul Rand was an American graphic designer who pioneered a distinctive American Modernist style. After studying in New York City, Rand worked as an art director for Esquire and Apparel Arts magazines from 1937 to 1941. As his work developed, Rand assimilated the philosophy and visual vocabulary of

Sally Rand was an American actress and dancer who achieved fame as a fan dancer and bubble dancer. Helen Beck entered show business at an early age. Eventually adopting the name Sally Rand (suggested to her, she said, by Cecil B. DeMille), she played in vaudeville and performed as an acrobatic

Witwatersrand, ridge of gold-bearing rock mostly in Gauteng province, South Africa. Its name means “Ridge of White Waters.” The highland, which forms the watershed between the Vaal and Limpopo rivers, is about 62 miles (100 km) long and 23 miles (37 km) wide; its average elevation is about 5,600

African American literature: African American roots: Revisionist satire spurred Alice Randall to create The Wind Done Gone (2001), a parody of the 20th century’s most extensively read historical novel, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind (1936).

National Association of Free Will Baptists: …originated with the work of Benjamin Randall, who became a Baptist in 1776 and began traveling in New England as an evangelist. He preached the doctrine of free will and established many Baptist churches. The movement eventually spread to the Midwest through the work of evangelists and preachers. In 1827…

John Herman Randall, Jr. was an American historian and philosopher who wrote a series of highly respected works on the history of philosophy. Randall studied under historians Charles A. Beard and James Harvey Robinson at Columbia University, where he began teaching in 1921 and earned his Ph.D. in

Miranda Lambert: …worked with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall on the collaborative album The Marfa Tapes (2021), a low-fi effort that was accompanied by a documentary. Later in 2021 Lambert reunited with Pistol Annies for the Christmas album Hell of a Holiday.

Samuel J. Randall was a U.S. congressman who served for nearly 30 years and who, as speaker of the House of Representatives (1876–81), codified the rules of the House and strengthened the role of speaker. Randall, a Democrat, served on the Philadelphia City Council (1852–56) and in the state senate

Samuel J. Randall was a U.S. congressman who served for nearly 30 years and who, as speaker of the House of Representatives (1876–81), codified the rules of the House and strengthened the role of speaker. Randall, a Democrat, served on the Philadelphia City Council (1852–56) and in the state senate

Tony Randall was an American actor who was most closely identified with the character Felix Unger, the fastidious fussbudget he portrayed opposite Jack Klugman’s sloppy Oscar Madison on the TV series The Odd Couple (1970–75); he won an Emmy Award for the last season of the show. Randall studied

David Randall-MacIver was a British-born American archaeologist and anthropologist. Randall-MacIver was educated at the University of Oxford and began his career at the excavation (1899–1901) of Abydos, Egypt, led by Sir Flinders Petrie. After conducting excavations of the Zimbabwe ruins in

Randburg, residential town in Gauteng province, South Africa, bordering Johannesburg to the south. It consists of numerous suburbs that were officially proclaimed a town in 1962. The town has no heavy industries, and the few light-industrial concerns include printing plants, organ-building

Randers, city, eastern Jutland, Denmark. It lies at the mouth of the Gudenå River along Randers Fjord, northwest of Århus. First mentioned in 1086, it was chartered in 1302 and became an important market and ecclesiastical centre in the Middle Ages. In 1340 the tyrant Count Gerhard of Holstein was

Randfontein, town, Gauteng province, South Africa. It lies west of Johannesburg and is centred on the gold mine first developed by Randfontein Estates Gold Mining Company in 1889. Originally a part of Krugersdorp, it became a separate municipality in 1929 and has since undergone considerable

Nikki Haley is an American politician who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2017–18) in the administration of U.S. Pres. Donald Trump. She was the first woman to serve as governor of South Carolina (2011–17). Haley unsuccessfully sought the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2024

Randolph, town (township), Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., 15 miles (24 km) south of Boston. Settled in 1710 as Cochato (named for the Cochato Indians), it was part of Braintree until separately incorporated in 1793. The town was renamed for Peyton Randolph, first president of the

Virginia Plan, along with the New Jersey Plan, one of two major proposals for the framework of the United States government presented at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. It was known as the Virginia Plan because it was presented to the convention by delegates of the state of

A. Philip Randolph was a trade unionist and civil-rights leader who was an influential figure in the struggle for justice and equality for African Americans. The son of a Methodist minister, Randolph moved to the Harlem district of New York City in 1911. He attended City College at night and, with

A. Philip Randolph was a trade unionist and civil-rights leader who was an influential figure in the struggle for justice and equality for African Americans. The son of a Methodist minister, Randolph moved to the Harlem district of New York City in 1911. He attended City College at night and, with

Edmund Jennings Randolph was a Virginia lawyer who played an important role in drafting and ratifying the U.S. Constitution and served as attorney general and later secretary of state in George Washington’s cabinet. After attending William and Mary College, Randolph studied law in the office of his

Edward Randolph was a British royal agent, customs officer, and American colonial official. Randolph worked in various governmental and private positions. In March 1676 the Lords of Trade appointed him to deliver royal instructions to Massachusetts requiring the colony government to send

John Frankenheimer: Films of the 1960s: …New Wavish science-fiction thriller, with John Randolph as a bored banker who pays $32,000 to a mysterious company that can feign people’s deaths and “rebirth” them into completely new bodies and careers; given a new life as an artist (played by Rock Hudson), he still is deeply dissatisfied. Although a…

John Randolph was an American political leader who was an important proponent of the doctrine of states’ rights in opposition to a strong centralized government. A descendant of notable colonial families of Virginia as well as of the Indian princess Pocahontas, Randolph distinguished himself from a

Netflix: Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. The service is best known for allowing users to stream movies and television shows on a single platform; the company also releases its own works, many of which have been nominated for awards. Netflix initially gained popularity when it disrupted the Blockbuster video-rental…

Peyton Randolph was the first president of the U.S. Continental Congress. Randolph was educated at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., and became a member of the Virginia bar in 1744. Four years later, in recognition of his stature as a lawyer, he was appointed king’s attorney for

Thomas Randolph, 1st earl of Moray was the nephew of King Robert I the Bruce of Scotland and a leading military commander in Robert’s successful struggle to gain independence from English rule; later he was regent for Robert’s young son and successor, David II (reigned 1329–71). Randolph was the

Thomas Randolph was an English poet and dramatist who used his knowledge of Aristotelian logic to create a unique kind of comedy. Educated at Westminster School and at the University of Cambridge, Randolph earned at both schools a reputation for English and Latin verse, and Ben Jonson adopted him

Gertrude Atherton: …published in book form as A Daughter of the Vine in 1899.) The death of her husband in 1887 released her, and she promptly traveled to New York City and thence in 1895 to England and continental Europe. In rapid succession she produced books set in those locales or in…

telecommunications network: Random access: Scheduled access schemes have several disadvantages, including the large overhead required for the reservation, polling, and token passing processes and the possibility of long idle periods when only a few nodes are transmitting. This can lead to extensive delays in routing information, especially…

Daft Punk: … (2010), Bangalter and Homem-Christo released Random Access Memories (2013). In contrast to Daft Punk’s previous recordings, the album was produced in collaboration with dozens of live musicians and employed hardly any electronic beats or samples. The result was hailed as a throwback to the opulent, ambitiously crafted recordings of an…

Deadmau5: …broke into the mainstream with Random Album Title, a collection that helped establish his signature dance floor-friendly sound. Random Album Title featured the singles “Faxing Berlin” and “I Remember,” both of which performed well on Billboard’s dance charts, and the album won dance recording of the year at the 2009…

amorphous solid: Models of atomic scale structures: …as polystyrene, and (3) the random close-packing model, applicable to metallic glasses, such as Au0.8Si0.2 gold-silicon. These are the names in conventional use for the models. Although each of them contains the word random, the well-defined short-range order means that they are not random in the sense that the gas…

dispersion: …in a given area: a random pattern; an aggregated pattern, in which organisms gather in clumps; or a uniform pattern, with a roughly equal spacing of individuals. The type of pattern often results from the nature of the relationships within the population. Social animals, such as chimpanzees, tend to gather…

chemical analysis: Evaluation of results: Random errors are the small fluctuations introduced in nearly all analyses. These errors can be minimized but not eliminated. They can be treated, however, using statistical methods. Statistics is used to estimate the random error that occurs during each step of an analysis, and, upon…

genetic drift, a change in the gene pool of a small population that takes place strictly by chance. Genetic drift can result in genetic traits being lost from a population or becoming widespread in a population without respect to the survival or reproductive value of the alleles involved. A random

James Hilton: A later novel, Random Harvest, describes the love story of a man trying to recapture three years of his life spent in amnesia. The last of Hilton’s 14 novels, Time and Time Again, was published in 1953.

Mervyn LeRoy: At Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: Random Harvest, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, and Quo Vadis: Random Harvest (1942), based on James Hilton’s novel, was a big box-office success. A soldier (Ronald Colman) is left with amnesia and shell shock after World War I, but his frustration melts away under the tender ministrations of a dancer (Garson), whom he falls in…

Sydney Pollack: Last films: Random Hearts (1999) was a misfire, with Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas ill matched as a police officer and a congresswoman who find that their spouses, who have just been killed in an airplane crash, were having an affair. After a protracted absence from directing,…

dictionary: General-purpose dictionaries: …An especially valuable addition was The Random House Dictionary (1966), edited by Jess Stein in a middle size called “the unabridged” and by Laurence Urdang in a smaller size (1968). The Merriam-Webster Collegiate series was subsequently extended to 8th (1973), 9th (1983), 10th (1993), and 11th (2003) editions. (The G.…

encyclopaedia: The length of encyclopaedias and encyclopaedic articles: …Twentieth Century Encyclopedia, and the Random House Encyclopedia. In the Random House set the contents were divided into two sections, a Colorpedia, composed of relatively lengthy articles dealing with broad topics, and an Alphapedia, composed of concise entries on very specific subjects. Some booksellers and publishers confirm that there is,…

heredity: Nonrandom mating: …species engage in alternatives to random mating as normal parts of their cycle of sexual reproduction. An important exception is sexual selection, in which an individual chooses a mate on the basis of some aspect of the mate’s phenotype. The selection can be based on some display feature such as…

Andrei Okounkov: …models using what are called random matrices. These are square arrays of numbers in which each number is chosen at random, perhaps in conformity with some appropriate general requirement on the property of the resulting matrix. Random matrices studied in physics have statistical properties similar to the statistical properties of…

infectious disease: Natural and acquired immunity: …chance, in a process called random migration, since almost every body site is supplied constantly with the blood in which these cells circulate. Additional granulocytes are attracted and directed to the sites of infection in a process called directed migration, or chemotaxis.

sound recording: The audiotape: …of the domains results in random noise, which is heard by the listener as tape hiss. Because lower frequencies are more effective in magnetizing the tape, and because the random variation in magnetization is a microscopic effect, tape hiss is primarily a high-frequency phenomenon. Several systems have been designed to…

automata theory: Probabilistic questions: …injecting the output of a random number generating device into one or more of its operational steps. The fourth concerned the logical possibility of an automaton, such as a Turing machine, actually yielding as output a sequence of random numbers. In this context, the automaton was considered to be simultaneously…

random number generation, process by which one or more digits are arbitrarily produced. Methods of random number generation can range from simple physical production, such as rolling dice, to complex methods involving algorithms and software. Although random numbers have been produced for thousands

public opinion: Probability sampling: …of probability sampling, known as random sampling, requires that each member of the universe have an equal chance of being selected. This could be accomplished by assigning a number to each person in the universe or writing each person’s name on a slip of paper, placing all the numbered or…

random variable, In statistics, a function that can take on either a finite number of values, each with an associated probability, or an infinite number of values, whose probabilities are summarized by a density function. Used in studying chance events, it is defined so as to account for all

random walk, in probability theory, a process for determining the probable location of a point subject to random motions, given the probabilities (the same at each step) of moving some distance in some direction. Random walks are an example of Markov processes, in which future behaviour is