Random

Something is described as random when it depends on chance: a process whose result cannot be predicted with certainty before it occurs, and that varies unpredictably from one trial to the next. The word applies equally to a die roll, a card draw, or the choice of a number by a machine.

A simple image helps grasp the idea: an opaque bag filled with numbered tokens. Each time you reach in to pull one out, you do not know which will come. The draw is random because nothing in the gesture favors one token over another.

This point is essential and often misunderstood: random does not mean "without rules." A random process obeys precise probabilities. If the bag contains ten identical tokens, each has exactly a one-in-ten chance of being drawn. The unpredictability concerns the result of a given draw, not the long-term proportions, which remain governed by those probabilities.

The misconception to set aside is confusing "random" with "anything goes." A truly random sequence can perfectly well produce the same number three times in a row: this is in no way abnormal and proves no defect. Conversely, a sequence that is too regular, where no repetition ever appears, would be more suspect than genuinely random.

On the site, the term applies to all draws, tosses, and number generations. When the generator picks an integer between 1 and 100, the draw is random and fair: each value receives the same chance of coming out. It is this controlled fairness, and not the absence of rules, that defines a good chance tool.