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Number Theory
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Ooperlooper


Posts: 104
Joined: Jun 2006
Post: #1
05-11-2007 08:12 PM

Not exactly 'six degrees of separation', but on a mathematically similar note, have you ever passed on an email petition of the type that goes something like...

Quote:
>Dear all,
>The Brazilian congress is now voting on a project that
>will reduce the Amazon forest to 50% of its size. It
>will take 1 MINUTE to read this, but PLEASE put your
>names on the list and forward this on as instructed
>below.

(blah...blah...blah)

>Please copy (cut & paste) the entire text into a 'new
>e-mail', put your complete name in the list below, and
>send to everyone you know.
>If you are the 400th person to sign please send a copy
>to
>fsaviolo@openlink.com.br
>Thank you for your help:
>01 - Fernanda de Souza Saviolo - Rio de Janeiro - RJ
>02 - Nara Maria de Souza - Rio de Janeiro - RJ -
>03 - Julio Cesar Fraga Viana - Rio de Janeiro - RJ-
>04 - Monica Grotkowsky Brotto -Sao Paulo - SP -
>05 - Mauricio Grotkowsky Br! otto - Sao Paulo -

...etc


If so, chew on this for a minute:

Imagine, for example, that the first person sends the message on to ten people, and then let's say that two of the ten then pass it on to another ten each, and two out of each ten sucessfully pass it on to another two out of ten, and so on and so on.

The total number of names collected on all the resulting lists combined would be:
1 + 2 = 3
...+4 = 7
...+8 = 15
...+16 = 31
...+32 = 63
...+64 = 127
...+128 = 255
...+256 = 511
.............and so on. You would end up with 80200 names on the lists in this example. So far so good. Might make fsaviolo@openlink.com.br choke on his/her hamburger a little.

However, the plan rather loses its beef when you consider this...

Total number of lists in circulation:
1x2 = 2
...x2 = 4
...x2 = 8
...x2 = 16
...x2 = 32
...x2 = 64
...x2 = 128
...x2 = 256
...x2 = 512
...x2 = 1024
...x2 = 2048
...x2 = 4096
...x2 = 8192
...x2 = 16384
...x2 = 32768
...x2 = 65536
...x2 = 131072
...x2 = 262144
...x2 = 524288
...x2 = 1048575
................over a million already and there are still 381 "x2"s to go.

In fact, the final number of lists is about:
10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000
That's 10 with 120 zeros.

To put that in perspective, there are only about:
'10 with 87 zeros' particles in the Universe.

Imagine how long it's going to take fsaviolo@openlink.com.br to clear his/her inbox.

A better method would be to make a website at which people could add their name to a list.

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Messages In This Topic
Number Theory - Ooperlooper - 05-11-2007 08:12 PM
RE: Number theory - Sherwood - 05-11-2007, 08:38 PM
RE: Number theory - Ooperlooper - 06-11-2007, 07:14 PM
RE: Number theory - bigjulie - 06-11-2007, 09:15 PM
RE: Number theory - Ooperlooper - 10-11-2007, 12:52 PM
RE: Number theory - RussB - 10-11-2007, 01:52 PM
RE: Number theory - Ooperlooper - 12-11-2007, 10:43 PM
RE: Number theory - roz - 12-11-2007, 11:01 PM
RE: Number theory - PVP - 13-11-2007, 09:34 AM
RE: Number theory - Ooperlooper - 13-11-2007, 09:43 PM
RE: Number theory - shzl400 - 13-11-2007, 10:50 PM
RE: Number theory - AMFM - 14-11-2007, 09:47 AM
RE: Number theory - robwinton - 14-11-2007, 09:56 AM
RE: Number theory - PVP - 14-11-2007, 10:05 AM
RE: Number theory - Ooperlooper - 14-11-2007, 08:11 PM
RE: Number theory - shzl400 - 15-11-2007, 10:46 AM
RE: Number theory - RussB - 14-11-2007, 09:52 PM
RE: Number theory - PVP - 15-11-2007, 10:43 AM
RE: Number theory - Cellar Door - 12-06-2009, 02:19 PM
RE: Number Theory - Snazy - 13-06-2009, 10:29 AM