Random Homework

1)    What is your definition of randomness? Does the concept ever come up in your life, in some place besides math class?

2)    Now I would like to see you make a list of numbers that looks random to you. The list will consist of 100 single digits, written in ten rows of ten digits. (You can see an example of this format in the list below.) Use any of the digits from 0 to 9.

3)    Think about what you did as you made the list. What steps did you take to make it look random? Did you erase at any point, or go back and change earlier entries? What made you change your mind?

4)    Does this list below look random to you? Say why or why not.

3 3 4 1 9 9 7 8 0 3
6 1 8 2 2 4 1 6 7 9
2 7 4 3 8 3 6 6 1 1
2 3 7 4 7 9 2 1 3 8
6 1 2 9 0 9 4 4 3 6
0 9 1 4 3 8 6 2 7 7
4 2 8 7 3 6 4 0 0 1
9 0 9 6 7 6 2 3 0 1
1 2 8 4 2 8 4 0 3 3
7 4 3 8 1 0 3 7 2 4

5)    Here is a sample of 30 coin flips:

T T T T H T T H H T T H H T T T T T H H T H T T T H H T T H

6)    Compare your impressions of both samples (the digits and the coin flips). Which one do you think is more believable as a true random sample? Explain.