Simulating Random Numbers from a Uniform Distribution

Abstract

Because many statistical methods rely on random samples, applied statisticians often need a source of “random numbers”. Older reference books for use in statistical applications contained tables of random numbers, which were intended to be used in selecting samples or in laying out a design for an experiment. Statisticians now rarely use printed tables of random numbers, but occasionally computer-accessed versions of such tables are used. Far more often, however, the computer is used to generate “random” numbers directly.