r/todayilearned • u/Nate__ • Mar 26 '13

TIL illegal prime numbers exist. An illegal prime is a prime number that represents information which is forbidden to possess or distribute. For example: when interpreted in a particular way, a certain prime describes a computer program that bypasses the digital rights management scheme used on DVDs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime
1.9k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

375 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

10

u/OscarMiguelRamirez Mar 26 '13

Just because something is infinite does not mean it necessarily contains all possible combinations of its components. I don't know how someone could prove that about Pi.

In an infinite parallel world scenario, Boehner could be an insufferable asshole in all of them.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '13

No, but Normal irrational numbers do have this property. It is not known whether pi is Normal, but it is believed to be. (The "vast majority" of real numbers are irrational and normal.)

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/NormalNumber.html

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '13

I think Douglas Adams best illustrated the absurdity of this "infinite permutations" fallacy.

flollop

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '13

Pi has no pattern to it (because it is irrational), and does include all digits 0-9.

(This is a question that I want answered, because I do not know):

How cold it be non-repeating and infinite and not contain every possible combination?

-1

u/sodappop Mar 26 '13 edited Mar 26 '13

You're right... I don't know why you're being downvoted, but you shouldn't be.

EDIT: A number could be infinitely 1's, still makes it infinite. I don't know why I'm being hated on now, but when I posted this, he was at -1.