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The
Monkey Shakespeare Simulator
"If you have enough monkeys
banging randomly on typewriters, they will eventually type the works of William Shakespeare." |
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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.
What to do if you get a record result
If you get a record result, press the "Submit record" button and email
it to us, and tell us your name and where you live. If you are the
first
with a new record, we'll put your name on this site. If you wish to
remain anonymous, that is okay too. If two people get the same number
of
letters, it is the one we receive first that counts, even if the other
one has an earlier date on it. Note
that the button doesn't work if you don't have a record. If you
do have a record and the button doesn't work, copy and paste the whole
of the text in the simulator's results box into an email and send it to
support@AardAsNails.com.
Put
"Monkey Shakespeare Simulator" in the subject line. It is important
that
you send us the whole of the results box. (To copy the text, place the mouse at
start of text, then while holding down the mouse button, move the mouse
to end of text and release. Then press Ctrl C (that is, while holding
down the Ctrl key, press C). To paste the text into your email, press
Ctrl V.)
Shakespeare's
plays
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| FAQ - Frequently Asked
Questions What does 4.5692e+53 mean? It is called Scientific Notation and it is a shorthand way of writing very large numbers. "e+53" means "move the decimal point 53 places to the right". So 4.5692e+53 is equal to 456,920,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. (P.S. In mathematical language, "e" is short for "exponent", and "e+53" is short for "times 10 raised to the exponent +53".) Why haven't you put my new record on your site? The record may already be broken by somebody else! Your web browser may be showing you an out-of-date copy of this web page that it has saved to your hard disk instead of downloading the latest page for you to see. If you are using Internet Explorer, you can force it to show the latest page by doing the following: 1) In the menu, choose: "Tools>Internet Options". 2) Under "General", press "Delete Files" and choose "Delete all offline content". 3) You must then close all copies of Internet Explorer and restart it. [New!] The web page says that the record is Y letters, but in the simulator box it says the record is only X letters Your browser has an out-of-date copy of the file "letters.gif" that it has saved to your hard disk instead of downloading the latest version. If you are using Internet Explorer, you can fix this by doing the following: 1) In the menu, choose: "Tools>Internet Options". 2) Under "General", press "Delete Files" and choose "Delete all offline content". 3) You must then close all copies of Internet Explorer and restart it. Shouldn't the number of monkeys I have under my control grow more quickly? Yes, if they multiplied at the maximum possible rate. But they are having too much fun typing! I got the same number of letters in fewer monkey years than anybody else. Do I get a mention? No. Only the first one counts. Why is it only the first few letters that count? The rules could be different so that matches anywhere on a page count. In fact there are many possible variations of the rules, and there are bound to be disagreements on which rule is chosen. In any case, if a whole page is going to match, then the first few letters will have to match too. What does the graph show? Each bar in the graph represents one day and its height shows the longest match found that day. Does everyone see the same results? No. The simulator on your computer produces unique results that only you can see. I happened to leave the page - is my simulation back to square one again? No, don't worry (unless you already had a record result and you didn't send it in, then it will be lost). But you are just as likely to get a record in the next 10 minutes whether you have just reloaded the page or whether you have had it displayed undisturbed for a week! I was up to XXXXXXe+15 monkey years elapsed, closed the browser inadvertently, reopened it and was down to XXXXXXe+13 monkey years. Yet you say it doesn't make any difference if the browser is closed down ? The monkey years elapsed are in the past, and do not affect the future. Only the current monkey population affects your chances, and the monkey population will be the same whether you just started or have been going for days! I have an old, slow computer. Is it worth me trying? Absolutely. The simulator is adjusted to run at the same speed on all computers, so having a slow computer is no handicap. I don't see any simulator - just a grey box. What is wrong? You don't have Java installed in your browser. Download the latest Java free here. The simulator is sometimes not drawn properly. You may have an old version of Java. Get the latest version free here. I downloaded the latest Java, but it still doesn't work properly. To find out what the problem is, go to the Java download page and click on "Help" I get to a certain number of letters and no further. Is it stuck? The chance of getting each extra letter is about an eightieth of getting the previous letter. So after a certain number of letters, it is largely a question of chance and patience. But on the other hand the population of monkeys is constantly increasing, so the odds get better all the time! How are the pages matched? To make this experiment more interesting, each play is assumed to start at the beginning of the play dialogue. Before the dialogue, each play usually has the play title, the list of characters, the heading "Act 1, Scene 1" and a description of the scene. What about the shift key, and isn't the space bar bigger than other keys? For the sake of the simulation, it is assumed that the monkeys have special typewriters where there are separate keys for upper case letters and lower-case letters, where the space bar is the same size as the other keys, and where all the keys that are not used in Shakespeare's plays are removed. It is also assumed that they know how and when to put in paper and take it out, and how to change the typewriter ribbon when it runs out! Some plays are difficult to read and have strange spelling Copyright-free texts have been used. Some of these texts are very old and have not been updated to reflect modern spelling. For the sake of this experiment is does not really matter which version is used, as it does not affect the probabilities. In Shakespeare's day, some letters where often used interchangeably, such as "i" and "j" ("King Iohn" instead of "King John"), or "u" and "v" ("behauiour" instead of "behaviour", or "vs" instead of "us"). [New!] With the strange spellings, isn't the chance of getting a record smaller? No, because the monkeys can't spell either ;o) The number of letters does not seem to be correct. Spaces and carriage returns are counted as "letters" too. Is this a 'real' simulation or just a cheat? The simulation is based on a random number generator to generate random keystrokes. The simulator does not simulate every level of detail because today's computers are just far too slow, but the probabilities are designed to accurately match those of real life and with the correct element of chance. Just like real life, the results of this simulator cannot be predicted even though the probabilities can. What is the lifespan of a monkey, or does the computer consider them to be immortal? About 50 years. The simulator runs at 1 day every second, yet the number of monkey years elapsed goes up millions of years every second. Why is this? The number of monkey-years is equal to the number of monkeys times the number of years. e.g. 2,000,000 monkeys typing for 3 years = 6,000,000 monkey-years. Hence the fast increase in monkey-years. Will the monkeys ever succeed? Due to the accelerated time and an unlimited supply of bananas, the monkey population in every simulator doubles every few days! So bookmark this page and come back now and again to check how other people's monkeys are doing and to put your own monkeys to work. |
 30 July 2003 Steve Wright Show - BBC Radio 2 |
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page visits since 1 July 2003
