Rand

Rand is a term with several distinct uses in finance, organizations, literature, and computing.

Rand is the currency of South Africa, coded ZAR, and is abbreviated with the symbol R. It is divided into 100 cents. The name rand is taken from the Witwatersrand, the geological formation on which Johannesburg stands, historically associated with gold. The rand was introduced in 1961, replacing the South African pound, and is issued by the South African Reserve Bank.

RAND Corporation, commonly written as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank. It was established in 1946 as a project of the Douglas Aircraft Company to provide research and analysis for national security during World War II and the early Cold War; it became independent in the following years. RAND conducts research and policy analysis across defense, health, education, energy, environment, and international affairs; it publishes reports, provides consulting services, and maintains a large library of data and models.

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher best known for The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Her philosophy, Objectivism, emphasizes rational self-interest and individual rights. Rand's works have influenced literature and libertarian and conservative thought, though interpretations of her ideas vary widely. She became a prominent public figure in the mid-20th century, and her name remains a recognizable surname in discussions of literature and philosophy.

In computing, rand is a common function name used to generate pseudo-random numbers in many programming languages. A call to rand typically returns an integer within a specific range and is often seeded to produce different sequences of numbers across runs. Rand functions are used in simulations, games, statistical sampling, and testing, and implementations vary by language and platform.