This video reminded me of the classic 52 factorial. For similar reasons to what Dr Tyson explained, every time you shuffle a deck of cards it is statistically likely a combination that has never been shuffled before since cards were invented. There are 8.0658e67 different possible permutations of ways to arrange a standard deck of 52 cards. For comparison a billion years is approx 3.155692608e16 seconds
I love that the explainer of the movie inception was an explainer in a explainer in an explainer. Lord Nice pointing out the “explainer in an explainer” triggered another explainer of that.
Jim Otto was 00 on the Raiders. He called it 'ought-o' as in the pronounciation of his last name. He said he was the only player with his last name on the front of his jersey.
For Chuck to be a comedian, i have to give it up to him for keeping up with one of the brightest minds on the planet . Neil even pushes Chuck to answer some of the equations himself and Chuck is (usually)correct ,but that's ok when you're dealing with such a calculating mind like Neil's. 😉👍🏽
If we ever do run out of SSNs and they do not recycle them, it would be much easier and more efficient for them to add a letter at the beginning. Instead of increasing the SSN capacity by a factor of 10, you increase it by a factor of 26. This would be enough to last centuries.
Some country codes are 3 digits. Also, the + can be replaced with 00. So all in all there's enough capacity for 1 quadrillion phone numbers to exist simultaneously.
@@StaticBlaster No, the plus symbol is for international dialling. On some phones, you can literally dial a plus. For example, my UK mobile can call +1 for America. On a landline, I'd dial 001.
Canada and the US share international country codes, +1. Mexico is +52. The Telecom Union assigned Canada and the United States the same code as they both operated through a shared numbering plan at the time, nanp. Canada and the US also had the broadest and most connected network to the world. This is why the code was '1' and not a higher or more than a single digit number.
I always learn something watching these Explainer videos, even if I do know little bit. I know I'm about 10 years too late but Neil, I enjoyed your performance as Waddles from Gravity Falls!
In astrophysics, we often deal with unimaginably large quantities, whether it’s the number of stars in the universe or the vast distances between galaxies. This raises an interesting thought: could we ever run out of numbers to describe such vast scales? By incorporating letters into numerical systems, we create alphanumeric permutations that vastly expand our capacity for representation, similar to how hexadecimal systems work. This approach not only provides more combinations but also enriches our way of categorizing and understanding cosmic phenomena. Could using alphanumeric systems in astrophysics revolutionize how we model and simulate the universe's complexities?
Just finished watching COSMOS. I just can not stop being touched by it. Carl Sagan's and Yours. So inspirational. Thank you. I could hold my tears by force but that changes nothing. And you are such a great actor too haha. Keep looking up!
Neil I'm from Brazil and I love your videos with Chuck. Your English is easy to understand because you speak cleary and I thank you for that. Could you please make a video explaining about earth rotation? That rotation more than a thausand kilometers around itself. And how the moon and the ISS work with It? I have seached a lot but could not find anything about this. Thank you! You and Carl Sagan are the most fantastic people on Earth and I can't believe I'm here writing to you!
15:05 Undeniable objective proof that Neil is truly a mortal like the rest of us. To see him access a calculator has justified my current use of them at least to some extent. lol
11:55 it's true that area codes are 3 digits long, but no area code starts with 0 or 1, so the first digit is from 2 to 9 and I think the 200, 300, 400, etc are not used. The same applies to the phone numbers, so no phone number starts with 0 or 1. so phone numbers first digit starts with 2 to 9 as well. And some are codes are used outside USA by countries within calling zone 1 like Canada, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Bahamas, etc so you can't count all the 10 digits "Zone 1" phone numbers as part of the USA. Also the area codes are predefined/assigned by states, so if a state have 3 different area codes, the total number of phone numbers that state can have will be the amount allowed by the 7 digits phone number (counting the first digit from 2-9) multiplied by 3. also the +1 can't be counted as a new digit, because that's just the international prefix, the same to the 011 or +11 for calling to countries outside calling zone 1.
Also, I haven't flown enough to know the answer to this: do difference airlines share the codes collectively, or does each individual airline have its own separate "file"? If so, multiply your final result by the number of airlines...should give you a pretty big number...
I think he's talking about the fare basis code. That's not a unique code. Lots of people going on the same flight will have the same code. Each number/letter has a meaning. It shows the type of ticket. For example, FYAHJNFC, means... F - booking class (first) YA - Advance purchase requirement (60 days) H - day of the week (Saturday) J - Time travel restriction (unknown) NFC - nonrefundable first class ticket However, each airline does it differently. That one is American. There is also a passenger number, called a PNR. That's six numbers/letters, and is unique only for each flight. It's just to identify the person - in case their happens to be two people with the exact same name. There's also the flight number, which isn't unique at all. It's two letters (for the airline), and up to 4 numbers representing the route. It doesn't need to be unique, because it's only used for booking. Aircraft themselves have a registration number, which is unique. By international agreement, they all have to be registered with the CAA in their country. All American ones start with N, all UK ones start with G (for example).
Great explainer. As a possible other topic. Numbers with error detection or numbers with error correction in them. Error detection is used in bank account numbers. To try and avoid people from making a transfer to a wrong account number by accidentaly mistyping or misreading a digit. With error detection (by adding extra numbers in a special way in the string) the system can quickly detect something went wrong in the account number. Error correction also adds numbers in the string, but in such a way that it can detect and even correct the string to what it should've been. Doctor Tyson could enjoy this one with data transmissions from satelites. When cosmic interference changes a few numbers while sending the signal, the receiving computer on earth could restore it to the original signal if the data send was a string of numbers with error correction in it. Would love to see if doctor Tyson can explain this one easily 😅
Some numbers never get used because for some things you don't want the ids to increment by one or it would be easy to figure out what is the next id (think of a robocall dialing every phone number), so they increment by a random amount.
Until about 25 years ago, phone area codes always had either a zero or one as the middle digit. They had to change that when we ran out of numbers. Some business phone systems were programmed to also require that sequence and they needed to be updated to accept digits other than one or zero.
@@chrisquinn8150 “Therefore, numbering plan area codes, often called just area codes, were defined to have three digits, with the middle digit being 0 or 1. Area codes with the middle digit 0 were assigned to numbering plan areas that comprised an entire state or province, while jurisdictions with multiple numbering plan areas received area codes having 1 as the second digit.”
I remember well my grandparents phone in their Bronx apartment. The prefix wasn't expressed in numbers, rather, Kingsbridge 4-xxxx, where the first two letters of Kingsbridge and 4 made up the prefix. 212 was the area code for the whole state.
No only do I remember dialing 7 digits, I remember the changeover from manual switching to dial. Your old manual phone number can be from one to four digits plus a letter like J or W at the end to identify party lines.
I love the explainer videos however, FYI Social Security does have some reserved numbers for the first three digits but the theory is good. Also up to the early 70’s I lived in a area where you only needed to dial the last 4 numbers to call your neighbors. Please keep the information coming.
Chuck is not a scientist but clearly highly intelligent. He makes a great counterpoint to the esteemed Dr Tyson. In a way he represents the audience. The formula works.
Should it not be 10 billion number for each country? Bec the 1 or 2 digit country code never changes..+1 0000000000 or +1 99999999999.. please clarify 🙏
Right. He was a bit off in explaining these numbers. Also, not every country uses the same number of digits for their phone numbers, nor the same format.
In the early 1980's, I worked in the field for a car manufacturer, calling on 20+ dealers in Pennsylvania, some located in large cities, some in decent-sized towns, and a couple in extremely rural locations. One agency I visited was in a town so small that it had its own phone company, and everybody in town had 3 digit phone numbers (!). If I wanted to talk to anybody not in that town, it was simple: pick up the handset, tap the button that hangs up the phone, and wait a moment... the town operator would get on the line, greet me by name(!), and say: " Do you need to be connected to Gardena, California?" ( our headquarters....). I would then hang up, and when the phone rang, I would answer and be told by the operator " Sir, I have Gardena on the line..." She was using the type of switchboard you see in old movies... Lots of wires plugged into a board.... Great episode, guys.
I have to fact check Neal on the counting of digits in international phone numbers. Not all countries follow the same 7 digit or 10 digit phone number patterns as the US uses.
Entropy is tricky for some alphanumeric numbering - sometimes the easily garbled letters are removed, such as 'I' and 'O' (for '1' and '0' respectively.) E.g. POWs in the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War used a 5x5 code using taps on the wall to communicate prisoners on the other side. The code for 'i' and 'j' were combined to simplify the code and evade detection from guards.
I have a youtube video open with ID of 5vtH1uBaoBY Has both a #1 and letter o in there. It also seems youtube uses upper and lower cases to add more digits 26*2+10 so 62 unique identifiers per digit.
I am glad he specified that he was working with pure numbers when talking about social security numbers because there is geographical meaning behind I believe the first 3 numbers which indicates where you lived when you obtained your number. Similar to area codes.
Nice explainer! Never really thought about these ID/serial/service tag numbers in this manner. 🤓 Someone correct me ... the "social security" hack example brought up ... Wasn't that the guy CEO from Lifelock? 🤔 Rings a bell.
My Dad actually worked for one of the phone companies in a management level, and he suggested in the 80's when beepers were popular, they needed to add another number before its too late, they all told him thats crazy. Neil is your math correct? with adding the country codes? because those are set to only those numbers for the country, so then they can reset the rest of numbers just for that country's use?
Also, you can't use the number of digits in a country code (3 digits here in Ireland) in the calculations for the maximum number of permutations since , within a country, that number never changes, so really you can even ignore it altogether.
North America uses 1 (country code) plus 3 (area code) plus 7 digits for the phone number. Other countries have a different setup. The country code is always such that when you enter it, you get exactly that country and no other. For example, the UK has the country code 44. This means that no other country code will start with two consecutive fours, and not only that, no "area code" (or analogue thereof) will start with a 4 if the country is also 4 (which currently doesn't exist, but provisions are made just in case). The area code and phone number can vary in length even within the same country, for example most phone numbers in the UK will be 9 or 10 digits long, with some special codes being shorter - anywhere from 3 to 7 digits long (think out the USA has 911 and 411 as special codes).
As a Canadian, I can confirm that the +1 in front of the 10 digit phone numbers is shared for all of North America; it's not an exclusive country code for the US.
I was so mad as a youngster in the early 90s when Houston started requiring us to dial the area code. Like the modern day half-second delay in web page loading, I felt so inconvenienced. I mean, come on! My friend cant wait that long to hear from me!!!
UK phone numbers have changed many times. For example, London used to be "01". Then it was split into "071" for inner London, and "081" for outer. Then they added a 1 to all landline phone numbers, so it became 0171 and 0181. Then, all London numbers changed to 020.
In upper eastern NY they started running out of phone numbers for the 518 area code so they made a new area code of 838. So yes in some areas they are actually running out of phone numbers somehow.
Big companies, mostly. Whether it's land lines or cellphones, some individuals will have up to four phones. Some people even have multiple personal numbers. Throw millions of people into one area, average it out to maybe 1.5 phones per adult, grow the population via birth and migration...start running out of numbers. This happens in every big city. The Star Talk episode from May 30, 2023 also explains a lot of this. Also keep in mind that people with cell numbers can move and keep their number, so it remains claimed even though that person isn't in the area anymore, and has been replaced by a new person who may need another number. That won't be a majority by any means, but should be a notable percentage.
Where there are both letters and numbers being used, you probably won't find an "I" interchanged with 1 or an "O" interchanged with 0. So you are likely to have 34 alpha=numeric, not 36.
Wrong. I have a youtube video open with ID of 5vtH1uBaoBY Has both a #1 and letter o in there. It also seems youtube uses upper and lower cases to add more digits 26*2+10 so 62 unique identifiers per digit.
@@MrT------5743 So, can you tell the difference between l, 1, and I? One is lower case L, the 2nd is a one, and the 3rd is an upper case I. If I had to read off the digits verbally, I wouldn't know which is which. That is why you shouldn't interchange at least some of these characters.
Little correction on the phone numbers. Not every country has 10 digit phone numbers. And some (smaller) countries have 3 digit country codes (but those probably have fewer digit numbers).
How about "will we or have we" run out of combinations of notes to make original songs ? Saw that question asked to some genius once...like a genius, she skirted the answer brilliantly.
SSN, prior to the 21st century, were done sequentially in certain ways so it was shockingly easy to figure out someones SSN if you know the SSN of someone else born in the same hospital, even easier if you have someone born on the same day but even yrs apart can be figured out by usin available census data and birth records.
Better solution to SS#'s: Go hexadecimal. 10^10=10,000,000,000 but 16^9=68,719,476,736. Also I think it would be easier on computer systems to allow A-F as characters than it would be to add another digit.
if you're going thru the trouble of going hexadecimal A-F, 0-9, why not go full alphanumeric and include the remaining G-Z as well? is it something to do with the 8-bits and bytes? but yes, if you include all the births and deaths since FDR's time, and all the immigrants and their descendants, pretty sure we'd be hitting that Billion mark quite soon, assuming we haven't already
I would think using letters for SSN's would be just as complicated as adding another digit. I know many companies have software which only allow numeric digits in the SSN fields for data entry. Tons of software programs all across the country would probably have to be updated either way.
the 1st 3# of a ssn indicate the the part of the US where the card was issued. these days the card is issued at birth but back in my day ppl applied for their card when they got their 1st job so it may not be where they were born. wont that impact the # of available #?
lol... We went from dialing 7 digits to call someone in the old days, to having to dial 10 digits, to just pushing a picture of their face! Now That's Progress👍
Unless you lose or break your phone and need to call someone. We used to have good memories. I would guess I knew at least 20 numbers of friends and family back in the day. We even had the local Police and fire numbers memorized before 911.
Check out E.164 - the maximum number of country codes is 3 digits, and the maximum number of subscriber numbers is 12 digits. The NANP might one day be extended to add 2 digits.
Note on the fedex calculations: They dont have 26 available letters bcuz of the confusion generated by 5 or S; 1 or I; 6 or G; 0 or O. At a minimum, theyre def not usin both 0 and O; so we have at most 25 letters, but more likely 22 or 23 letters dependin on things like if I has bars on it or not given the typeface used.
Many of those systems (like VIN) are standardized as far as which place can be a letter and which can be a number, with some positions expanding to both and necessarily being limited to maybe 23 letters plus ten numbers for 33 total characters. You may have a couple of exclusions but don't have to eliminate every letter that looks like a number, or vice-versa. It's been quite a while since I used FedEx, so I'm not sure on their system in particular. Going forward, I'm sure we'll start to see systems that also use special characters in their serial ID's.
You're wrong about country codes because they are not incremental, they are codes, so they don't add to the available numbers in the same way. My country code is 351, you can't just go to 352. ;)
I'm a big fan from Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia. I've been watchimg and reading for Mr. Tyson since the Cosmos show. Would love to hear your thoughts about Saudi's new futuristic city (NEOM) where everything is going to rely on AI and there will be zero carbon emmissions and how this city could help science and humanity overall.
That might be net zero, offsetting emissions with beneficial actions like planting trees. Zero carbon emissions isn't physically possible. One person farts and it's over. Net zero is still a massive goal. I wish them the best of luck, and perhaps they can be an example for the near future. As for AI running everything, that's its own saga.
Haven't even started watching the video yet and I can say yes, we can run out of numbers. I only say that because my region ran out of phone numbers so they added another area code for the same region. Now, on to watch the video.
I have a youtube video open with ID of 5vtH1uBaoBY Has both a #1 and letter o in there. It also seems youtube uses upper and lower cases to add more digits 26*2+10 so 62 unique identifiers per digit.
(Possible characters per slot)^(number of slots). This works only if it the same for each slot. So for colors on a electronic device there are 4 slots with 256 Possible so there are 256^4 that makes 4,294,967,296 colors
Just a heads up the +1 county code is for Canada as well :) really it’s only used when calling any country other than USA and Canada :) Overseas has 3 digits lol. Anyways love your vids guys!! Keep it up :)
They're all terrible. The chances of winning the jackpot in either Megamillions or Powerball are roughly 300 million to 1. You're about 300 times more likely to get hit by lightning this year. The chances of winning anything from Powerball is roughly 1 in 25, but 90% of those wins will only be $4. If you buy $1,000 of Megamillions tickets, the average return is $64.
Fun Fact. The primary identifier of your cell phone isn't actually your phone number. Each device is identified in the system with a HEXADECIMAL ID number that is cross referenced to your common phone number to make it compatible with landlines and other places. Hexadecimal numbers multiply each numerical placeholder by 16 instead of 10. This is very common with computer systems. In fact, every single wired and wireless network adapter has a unique Hex ID assigned when it is manufactured. That's A LOT.
I think you're talking about MAC address, which is a different thing. Mobile phones are identified by subscriber ID, on the SIM, which is a 14 or 15-digit decimal number. The first three digits are the country, and the next 2 or 3 are the network. Mobile phones also usually have a unique number, built-in, called an IMEI. That's more like a serial number. It can be used to block stolen phones. It's got nothing to do with your phone number. If you put your SIM in a different phone, then that'll receive your calls. A MAC address is used for network interfaces, such as inside a computer. It's usually written as 16 hexadecimal digits. Smart phones have a MAC address for their wi-fi.
@@ann_onn I worked with Motorola trunked radio networks and not cellular (nearly the same). We used hexadecimal for the subscriber I.D.'s. I assumed cellular was the same since Motorola invented it.
Used to do customer service for FedEx and always had to explain to people that if their tracking number contained letters it was for UPS not FedEx. FedEx is numbers only.
If you read this, I would love a follow up on the idea of running out of IP addresses. I came across a video a while back that was titled “we are running out of IP addresses”. Because apparently they use to hand them out like candy in the millions to random companies. Is it true..that we are running out of or will run out of IP addresses?
Yes, but we already have a new system, called IPv6 which has a ridiculously large number of addresses (about 10^36). About 4 billion times bigger than the entire old system. It runs alongside the old IPv4, and pretty much any devices built after 2000 are fine with it. Older devices generally get given a "fake" IPv4 address by their ISP, so they're fine too, mostly.
Actually Mr. Neal, when I make calls to Italy, I have to dial 011 39 first, then the area code, then the phone number. When my friend call me from there they have to dial 001 ( United States country code).
When telling someone your phone number internationally, the usual convention is to write “+” followed by the country code, area code and local number. That way, the recipient understands to replace the “+” with whatever international direct-dialling prefix they use in their country. E.g. here in 🇳🇿, I would give my number as +64-
@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 yes, because modern phones are designed this way. You dialed + and automatically the phone does the rest. However, with old phones that was not possible, you have to dial all the numbers. Why do I know that? Because my folks still holding on a 50 year old plus piece of crap phone that they refuse to change.
Growing up in Kansas city Kansas in the 50's we had 6 digits for our phone number. I remember when it went to 7 digits. I had an aunt and uncle who lived on a farm, they had a party line. Depending on how many times it rang was the way you knew if it was for you. I have more phone trivia, but that's enough for now. Good show, thanks Bob
Dial phones were awesome. If your finger didn't rotate the dial properly or correctly you would reach a wrong number. At work in the 70s I frequently received calls for a local bank with a similar number. I asked if they were using a dial phone...yep. I finally started answering the phone as " Royal Bank may I help you ? " I pulled a few pranks. 😁
In the very early days in some small towns there were 3 and 4 digit phone numbers. I do remember as a kid visiting my Aunt in a small town. She had a 4 digit number.
Fun fact : The first three digits in a Social Security Number are the "State Code" of issuance, usually the state of birth, as most citizens get one with their birth certificate, and cards are issued by the State at the time. With a "Pocket Ref" (fourth edition at least) you can find out what State someone was born in by looking up their first three numbers and matching, unless there's been an update since to change it... as the system is known to do from time to time... ;o)
@@StarTalk Always welcome! I know you were speaking "hypothetically" and it would work out mathematically in that case, but in the actual system, there's a subtle difference that could make it a little more dubious... just a fun little tid-bit. ;o)
Not state where you were born, it's the location you lived when the SSN was applied for. I was born in a different country, yet my SSN prefix is very close to my bride's. We applied separately in adjoining counties.
@@drguyor For any governmental system like the SSN, there are GOING to be exceptions made. In your case, it's because you were still considered a citizen (or that you applied for said citizenship upon entry) but born outside of the system's mechanics... For the HUGE great majority of citizens, we ARE born in a specific state, and of those, only a handful per year get born in a state that's NOT their parents' state of residence... even their state of birth as well... SO... for the majority, the SSN is applied as the birth certificate is made, and that's how you get it... Military and certain branches of law enforcement, and Ambassadors and their staff go abroad, so it's not unheard of for citizens to be born abroad, and they generally get an SSN upon application back in the states. All this is simpler than trying to apply the codes for situations abroad, and since, it's only another menial government tracking system for live births and where and how citizens migrate around the country, there's little real matter in it for children who won't be contributing to Social Security (by law) generally until their mid to late teens... or whenever they enter the workforce. My father's SSN had one of New Jersey's codes, and my mother, mine, and my little brother's are from Colorado, because my father was a truck driver who bought property in Colorado while on the road... decided he liked it out there better... and then we moved to Tennessee, so we're all coded and tracked around and about... You CAN find a reference for all this in the 3rd edition of the Pocket Ref... if you're interested in more... I only figured the "gross oversimplification" really needed blasted out into the cybervoids of RU-vid's Comment Section to add a little nuance to everyone's understanding of the whole dubious SSN numerology... ;o)
Kind of like ipv4, it was thought the address would never run out. Now were in ipv6 which is thought to never run out of combinations. Now some computer scientists are thinking these address may exhaust. Very Intersting.
I'm pretty sure they re-use social security numbers. and I don't think they will ever need to expand the numbers in the system. With the technology today, we don't need numbers (place holders) at all for keeping track of people. We could keep the SSN system for ease when it comes to reporting yourself but it would be more secure if numbers could not be guessed at all. Perhaps the better way to understand it is to think about phone numbers. We created this number system for the sake of dialing but the digital world, we don't need to assign numbers to people since we can just use a database with search function: Think Facebook. If we eliminate these numbers, there will be no robocalls. They will need to know who you are to be able to contact you. And we could require every single person who can call you to be registered and unable to obtain more than one "account" so if they spam, they can be blocked and you'll never hear from that person again. Even better, you can report them and get them blacklisted from the phone system. Nobody will dare spam us anymore.
