The Infinite Monkey Theorem hypothesizes that, given a typewriter and an infinite amount of time, a monkey could in theory produce the full works of William Shakespeare.
According to Open Source Shakespeare, a web page containing all of the bard’s plays, poems and sonnets, there are 884,421 words in the entire works of Shakespeare.
While the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust says the writer introduced more than 1,700 words into the English language, "banana" was not one of them.
Other academics were less incredulous, suggesting that the paper was a wild goose chase — a phrase itself invented by Shakespeare.
It may be time for the theorem to exit popular usage — pursued, unsuccessfully, by a monkey.
Persons:
William Shakespeare, Franklin, ” Stephen Woodcock, “, ” Woodcock, it’s, Woodcock, Jay Falletta, Shakespeare, George — “, ”, ” Ian Stewart, ” Martin Hairer, Daniel Simmonds, Simmonds, —
Organizations:
Galaxy, University of Technology Sydney, university’s, Mathematical, Physical Sciences, NBC News, Trust, Warwick University, Imperial College London, London Zoo, Zoological
Locations:
Australia, Zaire