How do you build a completely analog "random" system? Building a regular one is easy, building one that might seem random because of how many regular ones are tied together ... but true sources of entropy?

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LeoPanthera 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

I would imagine that analogue randomness is easier than doing it in a deterministic digital system. Surely there are all sorts of creative methods. Dice or coins in a box? A ball falling through a galton board? Sampling a double-pendulum? Floating particles in a heated liquid?

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bombcar 4 days ago | parent [-]

All of those things I know how to use - if I have some sort of digital measuring device watching/monitoring them.

How do I make a mechanical thing happen at a random time with a lava lamp?

The ball on the board with a hole might be something I could figure out …

	▲	addaon 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		> How do I make a mechanical thing happen at a random time with a lava lamp? Use a heat lamp interrupted by the lava globules to activate a wax motor. If you get the angles right you can probably do this with the same light that runs the lamp itself, or you can put another lamp at a 90° angle (but will have to adjust the main lamp to keep the total heat at the level you want). Or do similar with muscle wire; more temperature needed to trigger the actuator, but you can get them much smaller so the total heat can be smaller, if you run e.g. a collimated infrared laser as your heater across the lamp.

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cluckindan 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Heat and fluids are great sources of randomness, so you use a lava lamp.