Does 2 contain every possible nite sequence

of digits in it's decimal form?

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Alan Bustany, Trinity Wrangler, 1977 IMO

Written 7h ago

Does2 containeverypossiblefinitesequenceofdigitsinit'sdecimalform?

is widely believed to be a Normal number

, but this has not yet been proved (2016).

If it is indeed Normal then the frequency of occurrence of any finite sequence of digits (in
decimal or any base) in the infinite sequence of digits is equal. That implies every possible
finite sequence occurs infinitely many times, including the finite sequences that
correspond to the decimal encoding of the entire works of Shakespeare, the High
Definition picture of the Marilyn Monroe Playboy Centrefold, and this very answer. Not to
mention quite a lot of gibberish, false quotes, and pictures of Marilyn with a moustache.
It has been proven that almost all Real numbers are normal. Every single one of the
uncountably many of those has every possible finite sequence of digits in it. Including
Shakespeare, Marilyn, this answer, and all the gibberish. If you havent read it yet, I
recommend reading The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges to see just how useless
this property of Real numbers is.
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Alan Bustany
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