Question

1. Why is it so hard for computers to generate true random numbers? Can we get true random numbers, or are we stuck with something else?
2. Provide an example where computers need random numbers. Do they have to be truly random? (Only requirement here is that you can't repeat an example that someone else has used.)

Answer 1

Why is it so hard for computers to generate true random numbers?

=> Computers works on the algorithms, which are just the lists of instructions on how to carry out tasks.They’re deterministic, ( if you ask the same question , every time you’ll get the same answer),as machine is using the same algorithm to generate them.

Hence,is is hard to generate true random numbers.

Pseudo random:

We cannot generate true random numbers but what machines can produce is psedo-random numbers that works fine for most of the application.The pseudo- random-generated sequence is not truly random, because it is completely determined by an initial value, called the seed.Pseudorandom numbers depend on a seed to improve their randomness. seed value are taken from the physical world.

Can we get true random numbers, or are we stuck with something else?
We can have true random number generator which is a device that generates random numbers from a (Hardware) physical process instead of algorithms.It uses hardware/logic circuits which can produce true random number or the random numbers that are unpredictable.

Applications of Random numbers:

Consider simple example of classic Snake and Ladder Game With single player. A single die is rolled to determine random movement of a player's token in the game. As die contains number from 1 to 6. To design such die we need random number generator which can give any number between 1 to 6.

But, here random number generator need not be true; as psedo random number generator can also works to generate random number from 1 to 6.

cryptography:

In most of cryptographic applications random number is required for key generation/ nonce/salts etc

The quality of the random number generator directly determines how difficult it is to break int to the system. If in such cases hardware based / true random generator should be used as they are non-deterministic and hence can provide best security.

but even psedo random number generator can be used by changing  seed values continuosly and making it hard to guess the next random number.