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A Random Number

arandomnumber.com — A curious experiment with "random" numbers. Only takes 20 seconds!

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 25, 2006

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290 Comments

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  • Shakermaker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+96I'd like to see the results for this when it's finished....neat idea.
  • the_penguin_boy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6842

    duh
  • detrate, on 10/12/2007, -2/+64Yeah.. I'll probably forget, I hope this gets submitted again when it's finish. It'd be an intresting thing to see.
  • Roger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+30Mine is more random than yours!
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+35i chose 69 =] random as hell
  • AWBoy666, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27I've actually always wanted to do this. I always lean towards 7s too. 37 is the first number that always comes to mind for me. I put in 5 though :)
  • OverloadUT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23That's a good idea - I hadn't thought of that.

    After I publish my results (which will be posted to Digg for you people asking) I'll consider releasing a csv file of the numbers so people can play with it.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21The right answer was 86 btw.
  • egrabosky, on 10/12/2007, -1/+224 8 15 16 23 42
  • robohiggins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20It's funny to me that people are proud of the number they picked
  • Roger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20People tend to think odd numbers are more random.
  • Maniaca, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1956. I am a beautiful and unique snowflake.
  • MAdaXe42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19Interesting point actually - this would tell him exactly which numbers *NOT* to play in the lottery - basically, if you pay the unpopular numbers, you're not increasing your chances of winning, obviously, as all numbers are equal, but you ARE bettering your odds of not sharing a jackpot.
  • iheartbeer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1942. Not intentionally.

    Maybe subconsciously.
  • Roger, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20I picked that too.
  • ricksbots, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17"Interesting how not many people think of non-whole numbers."

    Thats actually not interesting
  • the_penguin_boy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Ironically, the fact that he says "Random" number biases the results. "Random" has a connotation that it should have no meaning whatsoever, and would deter people from picking "special" numbers, such as 1, 100, numbers divisible by 10, or numbers with cultural significance (such as 42). Had he said "Any" number, the results would most likely be biased _towards_ special numbers, due to the inherant human tendency towards items that stand out and attract attention, and are unique in some way.
  • animalgod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12He added an email sign up to see the results:

    http://www.arandomnumber.com/news.php
  • monkeycat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13I think people will likely put in thier favorite number, so I would guess that numbers between 1-10 will be disproportionately represented.
  • Durrok, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Your test in math class didn't complain if you put the wrong answer in either ;)
  • brian22, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11it's funny that they said 7 is common because I chose 77
  • elsimer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9would be nice if he'd publish a link to the results in a database of some sort - it'd be kinda cool to play with and possibly find your own correlations.
  • blakex, on 10/12/2007, -1/+947 here too...the quintessential random number:

    http://www.47.net/47society/
  • OverloadUT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Because this is a social and psychological experiment, not a math experiment. In this case, there are no wrong answers. ;)
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I tried "blue" but it wouldn't accept it.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+742.4
  • teddyrux, on 10/12/2007, -1/+757...Lots of us seem to be leaning towards the center. Perfect distribution perhaps?
  • Hella, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6i put 43, what are the chances? 1 in 100 or 1 in 98?
  • nietsnie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"I think people will likely put in thier favorite number, so I would guess that numbers between 1-10 will be disproportionately represented."

    I would have thought so too, but from just the responses on this page it appears not to be so. I would guess 42 would be used quite a lot though ;)

    Mine: 47
  • Roger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Wonder if he's looking for lottery numbers?

    Better not use those...
  • bennyboy371, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8@AWBoy666

    Odd that would come to mind, I picked 73.
  • habitue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but there are exactly 37 letters in the sentence "Please pick a random number between 1 and 100" if you include the digits.

    Maybe all of us 37 people are autistic savants.
  • Alegis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+558 - numpad

    Just random.
    Should be a mailinglist for the results ^_^
  • Geoffrois, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Same here, but only because I made a typo when trying to input 5.
  • OverloadUT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5A lot of thought went in to the wording on the front page. I went back and forth between several different options.

    The reason I ended up saying "random" is because I really wanted this expiriment to show what happens when you ask people for "random" numbers - I agree that if I had say "pick a number" there probably would be a lot more people choosing their favorite numbers or numbers that mean something to them. Hell, I spend a long time debating whether to say "pick a random number" or "enter a random number"!
  • OverloadUT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I am very sad to say that I didn't anticipate people putting in decimals, and the database is only configured to accept integers. So anything after the decimal was trimmed off. Had I thought of it, I would definitely have allowed it. :(
  • nogami, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I picked 1. Probably just lazy...
  • starmanjones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5> always lean towards 7s too. 37 is the

    mine was 37 too. ya might be interesting.
  • OrangeWhip, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Ha, I thought of putting 42. But, to throw things off (I guess) I went with 43.
  • CoolWind, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4that's bizarre. I picked 37. the opposite of random.
  • haxx4, on 10/12/2007, -1/+573 using the numpad.
  • dbug, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Stop posting your random numbers in this thread, nobody really cares.
  • dezmo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4haha, 'subconsciously', not sure if you meant that as a joke. hmm.. gets me thinking, "Please pick a random number between 1 and 100". Could it be the ultimate question?
  • xain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The reason you picked 37 is because it's Homer Simpsons favourite number
  • OverloadUT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Good idea. Wish I thought of it earlier. I just added that feature to the final page, so go back there and you can enter your email.

    Man that was the fastest I've ever tried to code anything ever.
  • blu64, on 10/12/2007, -0/+397 am i the only one?
  • gklinger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Blimey! I did 37 too and I've read about a dozen comments and already a few others wrote that they chose the same number. This may prove to be one of the most interesting human nature experiments of all time. I wish there was a 'double digg' button. Time to email the URL to a few friends.
  • CosmicBratt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I originally thought of 15, but put in 16 cause i'm a rebel like that.
  • BitSlash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow this is insane! I did 37, but I did it before reading the comments- this could be interesting once he publishes the results.
  • mikemac, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5ditto, bennyboy... 73 here
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