A slightly archaic term for a computer-generated random number. The prefix pseudo- is used to distinguish this type of number from a "truly" random number generated by a random physical process such as radioactive decay.
Pseudorandom Number
See also
Quasirandom Sequence, Random NumberExplore with Wolfram|Alpha
References
Luby, M. Pseudorandomness and Cryptographic Applications. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.Press, W. H.; Flannery, B. P.; Teukolsky, S. A.; and Vetterling, W. T. Numerical Recipes in FORTRAN: The Art of Scientific Computing, 2nd ed. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, p. 266, 1992.Referenced on Wolfram|Alpha
Pseudorandom NumberCite this as:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Pseudorandom Number." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/PseudorandomNumber.html