Back

'When One Hundred Million Million Poems Just Isn't Enough'

by Chris Joseph

adapted from Raymond Queneau's One hundred million million poems


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.



Back