Since I've been studying Computer Science, whenever random numbers e up, it's always Mersenne Twister. There's never even a question, no alternative. Just, use Mersenne Twister.

So what does JavaScript's Math.random use? It seems like it ought to use Mersenne Twister, since it's apparently without peer, but I can't find any reference to whether it does or not.

Does anyone know what it relies on, and/or why it isn't MT, if that's the case?

Since I've been studying Computer Science, whenever random numbers e up, it's always Mersenne Twister. There's never even a question, no alternative. Just, use Mersenne Twister.

So what does JavaScript's Math.random use? It seems like it ought to use Mersenne Twister, since it's apparently without peer, but I can't find any reference to whether it does or not.

Does anyone know what it relies on, and/or why it isn't MT, if that's the case?

• javascript
• random
• mersenne-twister

• Quantum puting offers algorithms that can generate more "natural" random numbers. [Theoretically] – KBN Commented Apr 28, 2012 at 7:24

1 Answer 1

It's likely implementation specific. The ECMAScript specification does not force any algorithm, so a Linux JavaScript implementation might very well use /dev/urandom.