1st Edition

Random Numbers Unveiled The Secrets of Numbers That You Can't Predict but Can Rely On

By George Szpiro Copyright 2026
240 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations
by Chapman & Hall

248 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations
by Chapman & Hall

248 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations
by Chapman & Hall

Random numbers are immensely important in scientific research, in economic decision making, in polling, gaming, and cryptography and algorithm design. Surprisingly, while many popular books in mathematics have been written about prime numbers, about □□, e, √-1, there exist no books for the general reader about random numbers. True, the subject of randomness as such has been the subject of several... Read more

Introduction Part I Random Numbers: What are they? Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3  Chapter 4 Part II Random Numbers: What are they good for? Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Part III Random Numbers: How do we produce them? Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Part IV Random Numbers: Why do we need them? Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Part V Random Numbers: How do we fake them? Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19                                    Epilogue

Biography

George Szpiro, born in Vienna, holds dual Swiss and Israeli citizenship. He earned his MSc in mathematics from the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, an MBA from Stanford University, and a doctorate in mathematical economics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Following consulting stints with McKinsey and Company, he turned to academia. After several years of academic research and teaching at the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) and the Hebrew University, he changed careers again and became a foreign correspondent and mathematics columnist for the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung. For over twenty years he reported from Israel, and for six years from New York.

Apart from two dozen academic papers in mathematics, statistics, economics, and genetic algorithms, Szpiro has authored nine books for general interest readers in mathematics, economics, and political science. He has been awarded the Prix Média by the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences, the Medienpreis of the German Mathematical Society, and was a finalist for the Descartes Prize of the European Union.