>Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 14:27:56 -0400 >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Physics News Update 605 > >PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE >The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News >Number 605 September 18, 2002 by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein, and James >Riordon > >[...] >FAST, CHEAP RANDOM NUMBERS. The keys needed to encrypt credit card >transactions and other crucial information floating in cyberspace often rely >on an infusion of random numbers. Generating true random numbers is >actually harder than it seems since the generation process generally follows >some deterministic algorithm, permitting the possible reappearance of >unwanted predictability. James Gleeson, a physicist at Kent State >University (330-672-9592, [EMAIL PROTECTED]) has come up with a >cheap, fast solution. He shoots laser light into a sample of liquid >crystals. But because the sample is subject to a turbulent flow, causing >haphazard fluctuations in the orientation of the liquid crystals, the >digitized transmitted light coming from the sample represents a stream of >random numbers. Gleeson believes that because his device depends on >standard liquid-crystal-display technology, his compact device can be used >for many processes requiring random-number generation. (Applied Physics >Letters, 9 September 2002.) > >*********** >PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE is a digest of physics news items arising >from physics meetings, physics journals, newspapers and >magazines, and other news sources. It is provided free of charge >as a way of broadly disseminating information about physics and >physicists. For that reason, you are free to post it, if you like, >where others can read it, providing only that you credit AIP. >Physics News Update appears approximately once a week.
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