2013-05-19
Original: 2013-05-19 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A balding man with glasses and a green shirt gestures while speaking.
Man: "An irrational number is called 'normal' if all the digits to the right of the decimal follow a uniform distribution regardless of base system."
Panel 2: The same man, looking slightly downcast.
Man: "A more human friendly way to say that is this: if you pick a random digit to the right of the decimal, you have no idea what you'll get."
Panel 3: The man is now seen at a distance, smiling, with the back of a brown-haired woman's head in the foreground (a listener).
Man: "A more poetic way to say that is this: if you assign letters to various number sequences, an irrational normal contains all the works of literature mankind will ever create, if you know where to look."
Panel 4: The brown-haired woman in a yellow shirt, smiling thoughtfully.
Woman: "So, for a given language conversion system, shouldn't there be a non-normal number that contains all the works of literature in chronological order, then just repeats 'BALLS BALLS BALLS' over and over again?"
Panel 5: Two silhouetted figures against a black background, facing each other.
Man (silhouette): "Yes. Those are the most hated numbers in mathematics."
Panel 6: A close-up of the man's face, now drawn with intense, angry/serious shading, looking determined.
Man: "The balls constants."
Votey: A simply-drawn man's face, eyes closed, head bowed, speaking a prayer.
Man: "Please don't let me be entirely wrong, ye gods of balls and math."
Man: "An irrational number is called 'normal' if all the digits to the right of the decimal follow a uniform distribution regardless of base system."
Panel 2: The same man, looking slightly downcast.
Man: "A more human friendly way to say that is this: if you pick a random digit to the right of the decimal, you have no idea what you'll get."
Panel 3: The man is now seen at a distance, smiling, with the back of a brown-haired woman's head in the foreground (a listener).
Man: "A more poetic way to say that is this: if you assign letters to various number sequences, an irrational normal contains all the works of literature mankind will ever create, if you know where to look."
Panel 4: The brown-haired woman in a yellow shirt, smiling thoughtfully.
Woman: "So, for a given language conversion system, shouldn't there be a non-normal number that contains all the works of literature in chronological order, then just repeats 'BALLS BALLS BALLS' over and over again?"
Panel 5: Two silhouetted figures against a black background, facing each other.
Man (silhouette): "Yes. Those are the most hated numbers in mathematics."
Panel 6: A close-up of the man's face, now drawn with intense, angry/serious shading, looking determined.
Man: "The balls constants."
Votey: A simply-drawn man's face, eyes closed, head bowed, speaking a prayer.
Man: "Please don't let me be entirely wrong, ye gods of balls and math."
Alt text
A six-panel SMBC comic. A balding man in glasses explains math to a woman. Panel 1: he says an irrational number is called 'normal' if all digits right of the decimal follow a uniform distribution regardless of base. Panel 2: he restates it plainly: if you pick a random digit, you have no idea what you'll get. Panel 3 (the woman's head visible in foreground): he says it poetically: assign letters to number sequences, and an irrational normal contains all the works of literature mankind will ever create, if you know where to look. Panel 4: the smiling woman asks whether there should be a non-normal number containing all literature in chronological order that then just repeats 'BALLS BALLS BALLS' forever. Panel 5 (silhouettes on black): the man answers, 'Yes. Those are the most hated numbers in mathematics.' Panel 6 (dramatic angry close-up of his face): 'The balls constants.' Votey aftercomic: a sketchy drawing of the man with eyes closed and head bowed, praying: 'Please don't let me be entirely wrong, ye gods of balls and math.'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.