# Monitor Displays Every Possible Combination Of Pixels (And Thus Images Of Everything)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-displays-every-possible-combination-of-pixels-and-thus-images-of-everything/309280>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 22, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-displays-every-possible-combination-of-pixels-and-thus-images-of-everything/309280 "2005-06-22T00:27:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-displays-every-possible-combination-of-pixels-and-thus-images-of-everything/309280/41 "2011-12-19T18:20:52Z")

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> [@Terminus\_Est](#):
>
> This thread is older now than that thread was when this thread was first posted.

Hmm . . . Maybe we should have called that thread, “My Back Pages” 😉

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**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-displays-every-possible-combination-of-pixels-and-thus-images-of-everything/309280/42 "2011-12-20T10:44:36Z")

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Might be worth mentioning [quantization errors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantization_error) when considering the difference between a computer generated image and an analogue picture. [PS: Read the whole thread before I realised it was a Zombie, dammit.]

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2011, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-displays-every-possible-combination-of-pixels-and-thus-images-of-everything/309280/43 "2011-12-20T13:46:03Z")

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In this is it possible to have a particular picture never come up?

Or to put it in another way, if you have a infinite number of coins flipped, giving random heads/tails continuously, it is possible to have a coin that never flips heads?

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-displays-every-possible-combination-of-pixels-and-thus-images-of-everything/309280/44 "2011-12-21T02:15:13Z")

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> [@kanicbird](#):
>
> In this is it possible to have a particular picture never come up?
> 
> Or to put it in another way, if you have a infinite number of coins flipped, giving random heads/tails continuously, it is possible to have a coin that never flips heads?

Every coin will come up heads in finite time with probability one, but some of them might take a while.

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-displays-every-possible-combination-of-pixels-and-thus-images-of-everything/309280/45 "2011-12-21T03:38:23Z")

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> [@Fish\_Cheer](#):
>
> Any such discussion is incomplete without a mention of Jorge Luis Borges’ masterpiece, [_The Library of Babel_](http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/library_of_babel.html).

Specifically, his tragic short story _Funes the Memorious._

How about Mona Lisa in any Euclidean state, with, say, what it looks/looked like with any nth or mega-nth time before and after and combinations thereof?

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-displays-every-possible-combination-of-pixels-and-thus-images-of-everything/309280/46 "2011-12-21T03:40:16Z")

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> [@Terminus\_Est](#):
>
> This thread is older now than that thread was when this thread was first posted.

Those monkeys are industrious buggers.

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**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2011, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-displays-every-possible-combination-of-pixels-and-thus-images-of-everything/309280/47 "2011-12-21T05:49:40Z")

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but, soft, what light through yonder window breqwkdfs…

oh, crap. ok, guys, we almost had it that time. one more try…

```
   { -- that infinite troop of monkeys, getting sick of typing on infinite smith-coronas }
```

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