RE: Post making contest
09-07-2016, 12:26 AM
Let's see, as of Unicode 9.0 (according to Wikipedia), there are 128019 graphic characters, 153 format characters (like spaces), and 65 control codes. Not all of these control codes, however, can be used in a post (sorry, bell). Thankfully, tab, linefeed, and carriage return are, so that means there are a grand total of 128175 characters that can make up a post.
Now, the limit on the number of characters in a post is 65535, so that means there are 12817565535 total full-length posts, or about 7.78×10334739 posts. HOWEVER a post doesn't have to be full length, so we also need to consider all posts of length 0, 1, 2... 65534 as well. Thankfully, the sum from i=0 to n of xi is just (xi+1-1)/(x-1). So, plugging that all in gives us... a near negligible number of additional posts. So the grand total, to as much precision as Wolfram Alpha will allow me is...
I think that's just slightly more posts than we have made.
Now, the limit on the number of characters in a post is 65535, so that means there are 12817565535 total full-length posts, or about 7.78×10334739 posts. HOWEVER a post doesn't have to be full length, so we also need to consider all posts of length 0, 1, 2... 65534 as well. Thankfully, the sum from i=0 to n of xi is just (xi+1-1)/(x-1). So, plugging that all in gives us... a near negligible number of additional posts. So the grand total, to as much precision as Wolfram Alpha will allow me is...