I could try to put some of that into more perspective by figuring out how much area all those rooms take up, or how tall a tower of rooms would be, but honestly at this scale I feel like it'll be so large it wouldn't matter. Suffice it to say: shit's big
Alex Member
STATUS: I can't believe we have statuses again. So much for the status thread. 10 yrs ago
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Another important thing is pronounceability. You may never have to enunciate your username, but people who make usernames generally make them capable of being enunciated nonetheless. This is achieved by way of constructing a username from consonant-vowel pairs, those 105 letter combinations that are phonetically viable. If we stray from pure mathematics by excluding phonetically infeasible names, we're left with a much smaller number than 324 sextillion, but still more than enough for us to never have to worry about running out of unique usernames.
Plus, the internet's so huge that having the same username as someone else doesn't really matter. Some people use names that are already associated with someone else completely intentionally, even. Say, for example, giving yourself the username of a Kingdom Hearts character.
it's okay you're smart too
edit: though in all seriousness there is mathematics you can do on the linguistics and I'm sure that it is possible to find the number of pronounceable usernames but honestly that wasn't a problem I was trying to solve in the first place. The problem isn't uninteresting but I lack the requisite knowledge and the desire to do the research I'd need to do into phonetics to solve it.
Meet the library of babel. Its purpose is to contain every single thing ever written. While it hasn't reached its completion by having every possible combination of characters out to 1,312,000, it does have every single combination of lower case letters, spaces, commas, and periods, out to 3200.
Go ahead, search it for one of your facebook posts (stripping unavailable characters of course). Look up a diary entry you made when you were six. Find your most private thoughts you've told nobody. Hell, it will probably even contain this thread (well, parts).
What does this library look like? Well, the project takes inspiration from Jorge Luis Borges's own Library of Babel
In this version, each "book" is 3200 characters long. Each shelf has 32 books. Each wall has five shelves. Each room has four walls of shelves. Each room has 640 different combinations of 3200 characters.
So then how many rooms are there?
Well, then we need to know how many combinations of 3200 characters there are. Our pool is 29 (26 letters + 1 space + 1 comma + 1 period)
The number of different combinations can then be represented as 29^3200
Just what is that number?
But let's just call that 4.7162*10^4680, mmk?
But now that we have the number of possible combinations of 3200 characters, we can divide that by 640 to see how many rooms are in the library!
7.3690*10^4678 rooms. For reference, the larger estimates for the number of fundamental particles in the universe are around 10^85.
That's one big library.
inb4 my calculations are wrong
It does contain this thread (up to the line this thread (with bbcode kept intact and then unavailable characters stripped - the search does it automagically): libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?howdy
Go ahead, search it for one of your facebook posts (stripping unavailable characters of course). Look up a diary entry you made when you were six. Find your most private thoughts you've told nobody. Hell, it will probably even contain this thread (well, parts).
What does this library look like? Well, the project takes inspiration from Jorge Luis Borges's own Library of Babel
The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries…The arrangement of the galleries is always the same: Twenty bookshelves, five to each side, line four of the hexagon's six sides…each bookshelf holds thirty-two books identical in format; each book contains four hundred ten pages; each page, forty lines; each line, approximately eighty black letters
In this version, each "book" is 3200 characters long. Each shelf has 32 books. Each wall has five shelves. Each room has four walls of shelves. Each room has 640 different combinations of 3200 characters.
So then how many rooms are there?
Well, then we need to know how many combinations of 3200 characters there are. Our pool is 29 (26 letters + 1 space + 1 comma + 1 period)
The number of different combinations can then be represented as 29^3200
Just what is that number?
But let's just call that 4.7162*10^4680, mmk?
But now that we have the number of possible combinations of 3200 characters, we can divide that by 640 to see how many rooms are in the library!
7.3690*10^4678 rooms. For reference, the larger estimates for the number of fundamental particles in the universe are around 10^85.
That's one big library.
inb4 my calculations are wrong
It does contain this thread (up to the line this thread (with bbcode kept intact and then unavailable characters stripped - the search does it automagically): libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?howdy
<Snipped quote by Alex>
I personally get 324 Sextillion by using a network diagram approach of 36^2 + 36^2 *37^n for n = 1:13 (as you can't start or finish with a space and you can end at each value of n). Seems much to simple compared to your maths though. Although I'm not sure on the potential for more than one space in a row for a username. I have my doubts about the validity of yours as it exceeds 37^15 = 333 Sextillion.
My answer is definitely too big
I worked under the assumption that the cases that weren't allowed would be so few that they would be insignificant - I'm probably very lazy wrong for doing so. But by the time I realized the problem looked like a geometric series I was going crazy (I was trying to brute force it as a programming exercise)
I'm not sure I completely understand your approach or what you meant by "network diagram approach" tbh
Wouldn't it be 36^4*37^n for n= 0:13? n= 1:13 ignored the two character usernames for n=0. I'm not sure why you add the 36^2 instead of adding them either?
idk it's been a while since I've done this sort of maths
Wouldn't it exceed 37^15 since I'm basically summing 37^15+37^14+37^13+...+37^2?
And anyways you're right about multiple spaces in a row - that isn't allowed either.
Honestly without knowing all the rules it's difficult to make an estimate.
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9 yrs ago
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<Snipped quote by Sherlock Holmes>
Hey, man, it was a quote. Sora is the most amazing person ever!
wow, he's right
So, this thread made me think of the interesting problem of exactly how many possible usernames there are!
I've come up with 342,708,664,283,810,176,729,802 - that's 342 sextillion, 3.42*10^23 possible names.
I don't think we have to worry about running out of names any time soon - there are enough for each person alive to have billions of usernames.
Also, I bet you just glossed over that huge number when you read it.
Doing all that math reminded me of something I was working on a few weeks ago - someone on the IRC told me about The Library of Babel project, which apparently contains everything ever written (within the parameters they have currently). I was trying to figure out how large the library would have to be in meatspace (And now I realize I was going at it the wrong way!)
(p.s. if i'm wrong feel free to correct me i'd love to know what I messed up)
I've come up with 342,708,664,283,810,176,729,802 - that's 342 sextillion, 3.42*10^23 possible names.
I don't think we have to worry about running out of names any time soon - there are enough for each person alive to have billions of usernames.
Also, I bet you just glossed over that huge number when you read it.
Doing all that math reminded me of something I was working on a few weeks ago - someone on the IRC told me about The Library of Babel project, which apparently contains everything ever written (within the parameters they have currently). I was trying to figure out how large the library would have to be in meatspace (And now I realize I was going at it the wrong way!)
(p.s. if i'm wrong feel free to correct me i'd love to know what I messed up)
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9 yrs ago
Forum: Spam Forum
How is Hank's post still up? Lol
Am i remembering wrong or is saying that like highly against the rules?
This place really is dead. REEE-
The quote you have seen is a product of its time. It may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in old guild society. This depiction was wrong then and is wrong today. While the following does not represent Hank's view of today's society-
oh wait no it's still unacceptably racist nevermind
@Hank is a serial killer, he uploaded my ghost to the internet
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