Random Numbers, better name: pseudo random numbers

A disclaimer is however appropriate. It should be fairly obvious that something as deterministic as a computer cannot generate purely random numbers.

Numbers generated by any of the standard algorithms are in reality pseudo random numbers, hopefully abiding to the following criteria:

• they produce a uniform distribution in the interval [0,1].
• correlations between random numbers are negligible
• the period before the same sequence of random numbers is repeated is as large as possible and finally
• the algorithm should be fast.