Monkeys will never be able to type Shakespeare.
Monkeys won't be able to type the works of Shakespeare
Two Australian mathematicians have concluded that the primates would "almost certainly" be unable to pen the complete works of the 'Romeo and Juliet' playwright if they were given the complete lifespan of the universe - rubbishing the 'infinite monkey theorem' that an unlimited amount of time can make something unlikely become probable.
The team did a series of calculations based on the current global population of chimpanzees (around 200,000) and the results indicated that even if every chimp on the planet was tasked with writing Shakespeare - they wouldn't get anywhere near typing the Bard's works.
In fact, there is only a five per cent chance that a single chimp could type the word 'bananas' during its life.
Study co-authors Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta, of the University of Technology Sydney, said: "It is not plausible that, even with improved typing speeds or an increase in chimpanzee populations, monkey labour will ever be a viable tool for developing non-trivial written works."
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