Scientists discover major problem with ‘infinite monkey theorem’ thought experiment

It's a classic thought experiment, but maths experts have discovered one key problem with the adage of the 'infinite monkey theorem'.

There's a good chance that you'll have heard the idea before - that a monkey randomly typing at a keyboard over an infinite amount of time will eventually write out the complete works of Shakespeare.

It’s a well known theory which is often used to discuss the nature of infinity. However, new research has shown that there’s one key problem with this idea, were it to play out for real.

According to a new mathematical study, the universe would die long before a monkey ever typed out the complete works of the Bard.

The study, published in the journal Franklin Open, was put together by a pair of mathematicians – and they quickly poured water on the theory.

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They declared that a monkey in this thought experiment would “almost certainly” never complete Shakespeare’s works before the “heat death” of the universe takes place in around a googol of years.

That’s an incomprehensibly large amount of time, with a googol represented by a one with 100 zeros behind it.

In fact, they found that the chances of a monkey even writing a single comprehensible word were very low.

The researchers based their findings on the idea of a single monkey pressing one key per second at a typewriter for 30 years, before extrapolating that out along the length of the universe's life span.

According to them, there was just a five per cent chance of a monkey randomly typing out the word "bananas" in that time. Even with the world's population of chimpanzees, around 200,000, typing around the clock, it wouldn't happen.

To bananas or not to bananas? It turns out that the odds of completing Shakespeare's works are "not even like one in a million" according to study co-author Stephen Woodcock of the University of Technology Sydney [via the New Scientist]. “If every atom in the universe was a universe in itself, it still wouldn’t happen.”

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