The generation of truly random binary numbers
C.H. Vincent · Journal of Physics E Scientific Instruments · 1970
The generation of independent random binary digits with an extremely small difference between the probabilities for 0 and 1 is discussed and shown to be practicable by means of a scale-of-2 counter counting randomly timed input pulses for a fixed time interval. It is shown that such digits can be used to form other random numbers with appreciable advantages of speed and accuracy, in comparison with the direct generation of similar numbers by means of a scale-of- n counter, where n >4. The use of ternary digits, generated with a scale-of-3 counter, would give a slight further theoretical advantage, but would be less convenient to implement than binary.