quote:
Originally posted by askan:
This is because random numbers on computers aren't really random. There is just a huge lookup table full of numbers and each one comes out in order. The 'seed' is what is used to work out where you start in that table.
If you use the same 'seed' you'll always get the same numbers in the same order.
Usually, it's not really a table. Most Random Number Generators perform a series of mathematical operations on the seed, generating a "random" number and a new seed. So if you start with the same seed, as askan said, you get the same series of random numbers. Tables of random numbers exist, but, if you are using billions of them, it's a lot easier to generate them on the fly.