RANDOMNESS AND COMPLEXITY IN CHEMICAL PHYSICS

In a seemingly abrupt change in the conversation, Professor Feynman turns to the theoretical chemist and says, “Some guy comes up to you and says, ‘What odds will you give me that the 10 billionth digit of π is 7, ’ What do you say to him ?” Innocently the chemist replies, “Let's see, π is a transcendental number, right ? I think somebody proved that transcendental numbers have random digits in their decimal representation. There must be 9 to 1 odds, or is it 10 to 1? I'm never good at these things.” “Not so fast, young man !” Feynman cautions, arching his eyebrows. “That bas might have calculated it!. By the way, I once had a statistical argument to prove Fermat's last theorem.”. © 1992, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.