If I put all my mp3's into the player on random at 4PM, will the first track to come be the same than if I do it at 5PM?

I understand that if I do it twice the tracks order will be different, but will the track order be the same next time I do it only once, whatever the moment I do it, or will it be different depending on WHEN I do it? And if so, why?

It's unverifiable (since we can't do it once twice) but Enstein said God doesn't play dice so I suppose that there must be a mathematic answer to that question?

Thanks

databank said:

If I put all my mp3's into the player on random at 4PM, will the first track to come be the same than if I do it at 5PM?

I understand that if I do it twice the tracks order will be different, but will the track order be the same next time I do it only once, whatever the moment I do it, or will it be different depending on WHEN I do it? And if so, why?

It's unverifiable (since we can't do it once twice) but Enstein said God doesn't play dice so I suppose that there must be a mathematic answer to that question?

Thanks

Yes, it will be the same, simply because as far as all digital devices are concerned there is no such thing as random number generation - they use algorythms to generate seemingly random numbers (which generally speaking is good enough and the idea is that they will seem to be as close to random as makes no difference to us), so assuming that your mp3 player's random number generator is a fairly standard one then the same next track will be played regardless of when you play it as the 'random' sequence has already been generated. I've noticed this with my own mp3 player - when I use the 'Shuffle All' option I've noticed that there are about 30 different sequences that it uses, so if you stop and reselect the shuffle you'll eventually encounter the same track order again (although it's not quite as simple as that, the so called random sequence will only be used for about 200 tracks then it'll switch to another sequence, but it's still not really very random).

So, in a nutshell - Yes.

i'm no math wizz, BUT

if one was to set a mp3 player on 'shuffle all', and the fisrt song was randomly selected,

then the chances of that sequence of files would be the most random of chances. on shuffle,

you may hear the first selection back to back or even in tripple play because of the randomness

involved in the selections, but even if it ever repeted itself three times ever again (outside of the player malfunctionin) it wouldn't be in the same order...

AsylumUtopia said:

databank said:

If I put all my mp3's into the player on random at 4PM, will the first track to come be the same than if I do it at 5PM?

I understand that if I do it twice the tracks order will be different, but will the track order be the same next time I do it only once, whatever the moment I do it, or will it be different depending on WHEN I do it? And if so, why?

It's unverifiable (since we can't do it once twice) but Enstein said God doesn't play dice so I suppose that there must be a mathematic answer to that question?

Thanks

Yes, it will be the same, simply because as far as all digital devices are concerned there is no such thing as random number generation - they use algorythms to generate seemingly random numbers (which generally speaking is good enough and the idea is that they will seem to be as close to random as makes no difference to us), so assuming that your mp3 player's random number generator is a fairly standard one then the same next track will be played regardless of when you play it as the 'random' sequence has already been generated. I've noticed this with my own mp3 player - when I use the 'Shuffle All' option I've noticed that there are about 30 different sequences that it uses, so if you stop and reselect the shuffle you'll eventually encounter the same track order again (although it's not quite as simple as that, the so called random sequence will only be used for about 200 tracks then it'll switch to another sequence, but it's still not really very random).

So, in a nutshell - Yes.

Cool Thx 4 lettin me know

KingBAD said:

i'm no math wizz, BUT

if one was to set a mp3 player on 'shuffle all', and the fisrt song was randomly selected,

then the chances of that sequence of files would be the most random of chances. on shuffle,

you may hear the first selection back to back or even in tripple play because of the randomness

involved in the selections, but even if it ever repeted itself three times ever again (outside of the player malfunctionin) it wouldn't be in the same order...

Cool Thx 4 lettin me know

Most so called "random" music players are not random but more of a shuffle. That is they will play all tracks in a shuffled order and then at the end will start over playing all the songs is a different order. But not the same song twice in a row *with the possible exception of that song being played last in one set and then first in the next play through.

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Most so called "random" music players are not random but more of a shuffle. That is they will play all tracks in a shuffled order and then at the end will start over playing all the songs is a different order. But not the same song twice in a row *with the possible exception of that song being played last in one set and then first in the next play through.

Mmmh... Always thought random and shuffle had the same meaning O_O What's the difference???

databank said:

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Most so called "random" music players are not random but more of a shuffle. That is they will play all tracks in a shuffled order and then at the end will start over playing all the songs is a different order. But not the same song twice in a row *with the possible exception of that song being played last in one set and then first in the next play through.

Mmmh... Always thought random and shuffle had the same meaning O_O What's the difference???

It is shuffled because you will not get the same song back to back.

think of a deck of cards. Shuffle it... take the fist card: 3 of hearts. Put that in a discard pile, take the next card 6 of diamonds, put that the discard pile and on until all 52 cards are in the pile. At not time was the same card seen twice much less in a row. That is a shuffle.

If it was random each time you took a card it would be put back into the deck so it could show up more than once or even back to back.

OnlyNDaUsa said:

databank said:

Mmmh... Always thought random and shuffle had the same meaning O_O What's the difference???

It is shuffled because you will not get the same song back to back.

think of a deck of cards. Shuffle it... take the fist card: 3 of hearts. Put that in a discard pile, take the next card 6 of diamonds, put that the discard pile and on until all 52 cards are in the pile. At not time was the same card seen twice much less in a row. That is a shuffle.

If it was random each time you took a card it would be put back into the deck so it could show up more than once or even back to back.

Awesome, thx. Winamp is definitely Shuffle.