Timeline for Given an infinite number of monkeys and an infinite amount of time, would one of them write Hamlet?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
13 events
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| Jan 15, 2011 at 22:07 | comment | added | Justin | probability, then clearly the probability of the monkey typing hamlet is 1. Otherwise it is 0. Note that we are dealing here with an infinite amount of time and therefore as long as the probability of something happening is >0, it has probability 1 of happening over an infinite amount of time. | |
| Jan 15, 2011 at 22:06 | comment | added | Justin | Even if the pounding of keys by monkeys is not entirely random, as long as every sequence of characters has probability > 0 of happening, then yes we can say the probability here is 1 of the monkey typing out hamlet. I also think we need to define "slamming the keyboard" more precisely for this question to be answerable. For example, a normal human slamming the keyboard would never produce the same character 3 times in a row. But this may not be true for monkeys. In conclusion, if the slamming is define in such a way that each sequence of keys is possible, no matter how small the | |
| Jan 15, 2011 at 6:13 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki by Jeff Atwood | ||
| Jan 13, 2011 at 23:52 | comment | added | Ibby | @Jacob Schlather I recall reading that the monkeys had an almost exclusive preference for the letters 's' and 'l', though the choice of letter varied by monkey. | |
| Jan 13, 2011 at 7:03 | history | edited | Pete L. Clark | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
added 467 characters in body
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| Jan 13, 2011 at 4:54 | comment | added | Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine | @Jacob, Atømix: I guess in a model that incorporates this, the probability does not go to 1 as the time goes to infinity, then :-) | |
| Jan 12, 2011 at 20:24 | comment | added | Armstrongest | @Jacob Schlather. Not only did they destroy them, they treat them like toilets, too. | |
| Jan 12, 2011 at 8:19 | comment | added | JSchlather | I believe there was an actual experiment done with monkeys in a room with typewriters to see what exactly they would produce. If I recall correctly the monkeys destroyed the typewriters, science. | |
| Jan 12, 2011 at 6:39 | comment | added | KCd | This reminds me of a Dilbert strip: clipmarks.com/clipmark/4905F106-063A-401C-8631-392E2E49652A | |
| Jan 12, 2011 at 5:40 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | @Sean: yes, I was serious, and yes, I had an unusual amount of fun writing it. I'm glad you enjoyed it. | |
| Jan 12, 2011 at 3:25 | comment | added | Matt E | Dear Pete, The paper Power laws for monkeys typing randomly: the case of unequal probabilities has some relevance to the issue considered in your answer, I think. Regards, | |
| Jan 12, 2011 at 2:11 | comment | added | Sean Tilson | Pete: I think this might be my favorite answer to any question ever. I know you meant it seriously, and it is certainly a well thought answer, but I find some of the phrases hilarious. Only a mathematician could write the phrase "there is a simple mathematical model of monkey keyboard pounding". | |
| Jan 12, 2011 at 2:01 | history | answered | Pete L. Clark | CC BY-SA 2.5 |