The Random Number Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Numbers That You Can’t Predict But Can Rely on

＂Who would have thought a book on random numbers would be more than randomly interesting? Author Szpiro draws readers in with clarity, wit and readily understood examples. Plenty of history, examples and some solid math for the cognoscenti!＂

--Vint Cerf, Internet Pioneer

＂George Szpiro, has managed to explain, in his inimitable, gripping and engaging style, with bite-size chapters, the many facets of randomness. I learned so much from this little book!＂

--Prof. Doron Zeilberger, Rutgers University

Random numbers are immensely important in scientific research, in economic decision making, in polling, gaming, and cryptography and algorithm design. Surprisingly, while many popular books in mathematics have been written about prime numbers, about □□, e, √-1, there exist no books for the general reader about random numbers. True, the subject of randomness as such has been the subject of several books, but random numbers are only mentioned, if at all, as a by-product. Given the immense theoretical and practical importance of random numbers, this is astonishing.

This book proposes to fill that gap.

The book discusses random numbers under five headings: What are they? What are they good for? How do we produce them? Why do we need them? How do we fake them? The book has been written with a sophisticated general reader in mind, but should be of much interest to students and academics of all levels who have an interest in mathematics and randomness.

Features

• Written in an easily readable, conversational style
• Aimed at general readers who are interested in mathematics in general, or who have read books about □□, e, √-1, or irrational numbers
• Accessible to anybody with a high-school mathematics education

George Szpiro, born in Vienna, holds dual Swiss and Israeli citizenship. He earned his MSc in mathematics from the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, an MBA from Stanford University, and a doctorate in mathematical economics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Following consulting stints with McKinsey and Company, he turned to academia. After several years of academic research and teaching at the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) and the Hebrew University, he changed careers again and became a foreign correspondent and mathematics columnist for the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung. For over twenty years he reported from Israel, and for six years from New York.

Apart from two dozen academic papers in mathematics, statistics, economics, and genetic algorithms, Szpiro has authored nine books for general interest readers in mathematics, economics, and political science. He has been awarded the Prix Média by the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences, the Medienpreis of the German Mathematical Society, and was a finalist for the Descartes Prize of the European Union.