Random is that linked to chance.
Random is an adjective that comes from the Latin word aleatorĭus. The concept allows us to qualify that which is linked to luck and which is unexpected.
For example: "We have no way of predicting who will win as the result is random" , "This is a random video conferencing system: you never know who you will communicate with" , "The federation announced that anti-doping tests will be random" .
The concept
Randomness is something that cannot be predicted since chance intervenes. Therefore, it is not possible to predict its outcome before it comes to fruition.
These types of phenomena are studied from probability to know how often a certain result can be obtained, whenever possible.
The result of roulette is always random.
Examples of random
Randomness (the condition of randomness) is the essence of games of chance. When a person rolls a die , they have no way of knowing what number will come up: the result of the action is random. Anyway, probability indicates that each number has a one in six chance of coming up since the die has six numbers. In other words, there is a probability that the number 1 will come up out of six possible ones (the rest of the possibilities are the numbers 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 and 6 ).
The outcome of roulette is also random. A man has no way of knowing where the ball will land before the play, so he has no certainty about his bet . There are, however, studies and analyzes that can be carried out to try to anticipate the result, especially when it comes to a manual roulette wheel.
A type of contract
A type of bilateral legal act is known as a random contract in which it is agreed that one of the benefits due depends on what takes place in the future, without this becoming a condition that could annul the agreement. but rather it is considered a contingency of loss or gain.
This type of contract is also onerous , meaning that both parties receive economic advantages and must comply with certain obligations.
Uses of the term random
It is important to mention that the term random is not very common in everyday speech, but instead random is used, which can be taken as one of its synonyms, along with fortuitous , casual and uncertain . In fact, in the definition of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), we see that random is something that belongs to the game of chance or that depends on chance itself, such as chance .
For its part, the word random is reserved above all for very specific areas, such as computer programming , where the concept itself is constantly used for the creation of a wide range of programs. Although software development is a relatively structured process that seeks previously established results, it is often necessary to resort to chance to solve certain problems.
This occurs especially in the video game industry, where certain elements must be placed in always different positions, so that they surprise the player. Since fetching random values is somewhat demanding on processors, it is recommended to create a list during loading and then grab numbers from there whenever they are needed.
To understand this, let's think about a very simple game in which we must control a ship with which to shoot a series of enemies that appear from the top of the screen and advance towards us. If we use random values to assign them a position, each game will be different; Otherwise, the person will have the opportunity to learn the layout of each level by heart and over time the challenge will decrease.