Has the concept of randomness been proven?

[raphaelh42]

Hi, I ask this because it seems to me that randomness doesn't exist, I don't know what science/scientists think about this, and sorry for not having searched Google before posting

E.g., when you throw dices, I believe 0% of the result is based on randomness, I believe 100% of the result has reasons, such as maybe the way the dices have been thrown, maybe the temperature of the room, the distance to the impact surface, its density...

 

Is there some experiment that proves randomness exists?

Edited December 25, 2024 by raphaelh42

[KJW]

I don't know if it can be considered to be "proven", but quantum mechanical outcomes are intrinsically random.

 

Edited December 25, 2024 by KJW

[swansont]

You haven’t specified what you mean by randomness, but certain phenomena follow statistical patterns that rely on probability. Radioactive decay, for example. 

[geordief]

Could this be a way of looking at it?

At the macro level  two events("events" as physical things that happen -not "events" as points in spacetime)  can be causally connected ,meaning that they are joined by a series  of interceding events .

At  a micro level perhaps(?) this chain of events does not exist,there only being event A and event B to take into consideration.

So what then would factor in to predicting whether event B would reflect or not  a particular  property of event A?

If there is indeed nothing in between the two events   then "randomness" is all that is left(except that ,for reasons I am ignorant of  with apparently statistical probability still applies)

 

[studiot]

Just now, raphaelh42 said:

Hi, I ask this because it seems to me that randomness doesn't exist, I don't know what science/scientists think about this, and sorry for not having searched Google before posting

E.g., when you throw dices, I believe 0% of the result is based on randomness, I believe 100% of the result has reasons, such as maybe the way the dices have been thrown, maybe the temperature of the room, the distance to the impact surface, its density...

 

Is there some experiment that proves randomness exists?

Of course not only does the concept of randomness exist, it is all around you all the time.

However it is useful to get our definitions correct (is English your first language ? ) so here is a small adjustment for yiur vocabulary.

'dices' is what a butcher does as in

Henry the butcher dices and slices the meat.

'dices'  is the third person singular of the verb 'to dice' which means to cut (approximately) into cubes.

The noun (object) you are thinking of is the word die, which has a plural dice. One die two (or more) dice.

 

That said it is necesary to distinguish meanings for the words random, statistics , probability, event and perhaps a few more.

 

So when a process or activity has more than one possible outcome such that the outcomes do not occur in a defined sequence,  that those outcomes are defined as random. Each single outcome is also called an event.

Given this definition you you not need to know anything about probability, statistics and so on, you only need to loo around you to see many outcomes that are random.

So some examples may help.

If I have a bag that I can't see into and put two balls into the bag, identical except one is blue and the other is red. Then I withdraw one ball by feel alone and find it is red.

Withdrawing the first ball is random as there are two possibilities; red or blue.

Withdrawing the second ball is not random, it must be the second colour (blue in this case) so the second withdrawal is deterministic.

Each withdrawal has been considered as a separate outcome or event.

Considering the two withdrawals as part of the same single event of withdrawing both balls from the bage yields a different analysis.

Can you see why ?  This second view held probability theory up for something like 200 years.

 

More widely, suppose I do some target practice with my bow and arrows.

I hang a target on my neighbour's door and shoot a number of arrows into it.

Each arrow hit is a single event.

Once I have made a number of hits I will notice that the arrows do not all hit in exactly the same place, no matter how hard I try.

This is because each arrow flight experiences random influences such as gusts of wind, which blow or do not blow and so on.

So my arrows are truly scattered randomly over the target, as I am not superman.

 

Turbulence in the air is probably the widest random influence we experience.

 

Does this help ?