4 ms·
Probably. There are only 2^64 possible hash values (Mathematica's Hash function, with no method specified, produces a 32- or 64-bit output depending on platform
by Smaug123 9y ago
Probably. There are only 2^64 possible hash values (Mathematica's Hash function, with no method specified, produces a 32- or 64-bit output depending on platform), and there are many more strings than that which could reasonably be called a "paragraph". It's pretty reasonable to hope that there's a self-describing paragraph out there somewhere.
- repsilat 9y agoHah, "could in theory" vs "could in practice" -- depending on the hash function, it could take hundreds or thousands of processor-years. Maybe Google could do it. http://m.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2%5E64+things+%2F+%281+billion+things+%2F+second%29+in+years http://m.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2%5E64+things+%2F+%281+bi...
- bluesign 9y agoActually for any given paragraph, probabilty of hash(paragraph+hash) = hash is pretty high.
- svantana 9y agoYou mean that there exists at least one hash such that hashFunc(paragraph+hash) = hash? Yup, that probability converges to 1-exp(-1) = 63%. So it's no guarantee, but if you have some wiggle room in the paragraph (change the wording slightly etc) you can probably make it work.