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Nowadays, tables of random numbers have been replaced by computational random number generators. If carefully prepared, the filtering and testing processes remove any noticeable bias or asymmetry from the hardware-generated original numbers so that such tables provide the most "reliable" random numbers available to the casual user.
A random number is generated by a random process such as throwing Dice. Individual numbers can't be predicted, but the likely result of generating a large quantity of numbers can be predicted by specific mathematical series and statistics .
Random number generation is a process by which, often by means of a random number generator (RNG), a sequence of numbers or symbols is generated that cannot be reasonably predicted better than by random chance. This means that the particular outcome sequence will contain some patterns detectable in hindsight but impossible to foresee.
If the members of the population come in three kinds, say "blue", "red" and "black", the number of red elements in a sample of given size will vary by sample and hence is a random variable whose distribution can be studied. That distribution depends on the numbers of red and black elements in the full population.
Tippett published "Random Sampling Numbers" in 1927 and thus invented the random number table. In 1965 he retired to St Austell, Cornwall and in this period became an UNIDO consultant, being active in India. He died in 1985 after being hit by a van whilst walking from his home to the St. Austell Choral Society to sing in the St. Matthew Passion.
Before the advent of computational random number generators, generating large amounts of sufficiently random numbers (which is important in statistics) required a lot of work. Results would sometimes be collected and distributed as random number tables.
James Dean, who starred in "Rebel Without a Cause" opposite Natalie Wood and "Giant" alongside Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson, died in 1955 at age 24.
The RAND table was an important breakthrough in delivering random numbers, because such a large and carefully prepared table had never before been available. In addition to being available in book form, one could also order the digits on a series of punched cards. The table is formatted as 400 pages, each containing 50 lines of 50 digits.