When One Hundred Million Million Poems Just Isn’t Enough

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from original flash version, adapted from Raymond Queneau’s One hundred million million poems [image]

There are more variations of this poem than stars in the known universe.

Ignoring colour:

starting position poem variations:

= 14 conjunctions * 207 pronouns/names * 584 verbs * 362 adjectives * 100 colour names * 1258 nouns * 4 punctuation symbols * 16 lines
= 4,932,651,283,660,800 = 4.93 quadrillion [4,932 million million or 4.93 million billion] variations
It would take approximately 9,865,302,568 [9.9 billion] years to read them all, reading 24 hours a day

maximum poem variations:

= 14 conjunctions * 207 pronouns/names * 584 verbs * 362 adjectives * 100 colour names * 1258 nouns * 4 punctuation symbols * 60 lines
= 18,497,442,313,728,000 = 18.5 quadrillion [18,500 million million or 18.5 million billion] variations

It would take approx. 36,994,884,632 [37 billion] years to read them all, reading 24 hours a day

With colour:

starting position colour poem variations:

= poem variations * 16,777,216 colours
= 4,932,651,283,660,800 * 16,777,216
= 82,756,156,038,654,512,332,800 variations
= 83 sextillion variations

It would take approx. 41,378,078,022,172,672 years [41 quadrillion years] to see them all, reading 24 hours a day

maximum poem variations:

= poem variations * 16,777,216 colours
= 18,497,442,313,728,000 * 16,777,216
= 310,335,585,144,954,421,248,000 variations
= 310 sextillion variations

It would take approx. 155,167,792,583,147,520 years [155 quadrillion years] to see them all, reading 24 hours a day

There are 300 sextillion stars in the known universe.


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