banging randomly on typewriters,
they will eventually type the works
of William Shakespeare."
Some computer programers decided to put this one to the test, and created this website:
Click Here
I find myself strangely fascinated with it.
From the website:
Why have the monkeys typed so few letters of Shakespeare?
The odds against monkeys typing Shakespeare by chance are astronomical. With about 80 typewriter keys, the chance of getting the first letter right is about 80 to 1. The chance of getting 2 letters right is 1 in 80×80, or 6400 to 1. Each letter increases the odds against by 80 times. The odds of getting 10 letters right is about 11 million million million to1. To make sure that the simulator creates interesting results within our lifetimes, it is designed to run at an accelerated rate of 1 day every second. And, more importantly, the population of monkeys is allowed to increase exponentially! The number of monkeys doubles every few days, which doubles the speed at which they can produce pages - so come back now and again to see how they are getting on and to put your own monkeys to work.
About the simulator
In the simulator, time passes 86,400 times faster than real life. Each monkey is assumed to press 1 typewriter key per second, and each page requires 2000 keystrokes. In between typing, the monkeys find time to procreate and increase their number. The starting point for this project is 1 July 2003, when there were 100 monkeys, and the increase in population (which is independent of whether or not any simulators are running) is continuously updated. There is no limit to the number of monkeys as they have an unlimited supply of bananas. The longer you run the simulator, the better your chances of getting a record result.
. . .hey, it's slow during the offseason. :)
(but I'm serious that some people believe that one)