Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: latebind on 15/03/2010 17:13:05

Title: Music vs Atoms?
Post by: latebind on 15/03/2010 17:13:05

Hey there

Heres a riddle for you ...

Who would win in the following little competition...

The number of atoms in the universe VS the number of possible songs that can be made

For the musical rules --> Anything that ANYONE would or could call a song is counted! That's also just to give it a fighting chance against the number of atoms on the universe.

-If 2 different people sing the same song then it still counts as one song - the music has not changed!
- Instrumentals included.
- 2 differently played versions of the same song will count as 2 unique songs because technically the sound has changed and that counts as a different song.


For the universe rules --> Wiki says that 2 different sources quote the number of atoms in the universe as a minimum of 10⁸⁰

GOOD LUCK!

Title: Re: Music vs Atoms?
Post by: latebind on 15/03/2010 17:14:32

I am hoping that music wins!!! I think it will, it seems almost infinite doesn't it??

Title: Music vs Atoms?
Post by: RD on 15/03/2010 21:15:12

The keys on a piano can be rearranged 88! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial) ways, which is greater than 10¹⁰⁰ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol).

Quote

... there are n! ways to arrange n distinct objects into a sequence (i.e., permutations  of a the set of objects)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial

The variations possible in playing a 3 minute tune* of say 500 notes on a piano with 88 notes would be much greater.

[* the "tune" would be a sequence of notes, most would not be musical ]