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Shannon's number
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 5:15 pm
by Ted Black
Any thoughts out there on the total number of possible chess games being larger than the number of atoms in the known universe?
Re: Shannon's number
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 5:43 pm
by NickFaulks
Ted Black wrote: ↑Wed Feb 27, 2019 5:15 pm
Any thoughts out there on the total number of possible chess games being larger than the number of atoms in the known universe?
Obviously true.
Re: Shannon's number
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 5:51 pm
by Roland Kensdale
A very accessible video on this by Numberphile is at:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Km024eldY1A
It explains how Shannon estimated the figure based on a rough average of 30 legal plies (half moves) in a typical middlegame position. Another mathematician Hardy had a larger estimate but didn't give his working. These are legal games, not sensible games.
Probably the universe which we can study is larger than when the statement was made, though the speed of light may put a finite limit on how much we can observe. It is also expanding.