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Appendix 14: Random Number Table

  • Page ID
    6650
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    The following table provides a list of random numbers in which the digits 0 through 9 appear with approximately equal frequency. Numbers are arranged in groups of five to make the table easier to view. This arrangement is arbitrary, and you can treat the table as a sequence of random individual digits (1, 2, 1, 3, 7, 4…going down the first column of digits on the left side of the table), as a sequence of three digit numbers (111, 212, 104, 367, 739… using the first three columns of digits on the left side of the table), or in any other similar manner.

    Let’s use the table to pick 10 random numbers between 1 and 50. To do so, we choose a random starting point, perhaps by dropping a pencil onto the table. For this exercise, we will assume that the starting point is the fifth row of the third column, or 12032. Because the numbers must be between 1 and 50, we will use the last two digits, ignoring all two-digit numbers less than 01 or greater than 50, and rejecting any duplicates. Proceeding down the third column, and moving to the top of the fourth column when necessary, gives the following 10 random numbers: 32, 01, 05, 16, 15, 38, 24, 10, 26, 14.

    These random numbers (1000 total digits) are a small subset of values from the publication Million Random Digits (Rand Corporation, 2001) and used with permission. Information about the publication, and a link to a text file containing the million random digits is available at http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1418/.

    1000 Random Numbers from the publication Million Random Digits (Rand Corporation, 2001)

    11164

    36318

    75061

    37674

    26320

    75100

    10431

    20418

    19228

    91792

    21215

    91791

    76831

    58678

    87054

    31687

    93205

    43685

    19732

    08468

    10438

    44482

    66558

    37649

    08882

    90870

    12462

    41810

    01806

    02977

    36792

    26236

    33266

    66583

    60881

    97395

    20461

    36742

    02852

    50564

    73944

    04773

    12032

    51414

    82384

    38370

    00249

    80709

    72605

    67497

    49563

    12872

    14063

    93104

    78483

    72717

    68714

    18048

    25005

    04151

    64208

    48237

    41701

    73117

    33242

    42314

    83049

    21933

    92813

    04763

    51486

    72875

    38605

    29341

    80749

    80151

    33835

    52602

    79147

    08868

    99756

    26360

    64516

    17971

    48478

    09610

    04638

    17141

    09227

    10606

    71325

    55217

    13015

    72907

    00431

    45117

    33827

    92873

    02953

    85474

    65285

    97198

    12138

    53010

    95601

    15838

    16805

    61004

    43516

    17020

    17264

    57327

    38224

    29301

    31381

    38109

    34976

    65692

    98566

    29550

    95639

    99754

    31199

    92558

    68368

    04985

    51092

    37780

    40261

    14479

    61555

    76404

    86210

    11808

    12841

    45147

    97438

    60022

    12645

    62000

    78137

    98768

    04689

    87130

    79225

    08153

    84967

    64539

    79493

    74917

    62490

    99215

    84987

    28759

    19177

    14733

    24550

    28067

    68894

    38490

    24216

    63444

    21283

    07044

    92729

    37284

    13211

    37485

    10415

    36457

    16975

    95428

    33226

    55903

    31605

    43817

    22250

    03918

    46999

    98501

    59138

    39542

    71168

    57609

    91510

    77904

    74244

    50940

    31553

    62562

    29478

    59652

    50414

    31966

    87912

    87514

    12944

    49862

    96566

    48825

    Contributors and Attributions


    Appendix 14: Random Number Table is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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