By patient and careful research, try to answer one of the following questions. Report what you learn from the attempt.
At the end of Shakespeare's Hamlet (and hence also at the end of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead), Fortinbras becomes king of Denmark. Is this what actually occurred in the history of Denmark, or did Shakespeare make it up?
In the opening scene of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Guildenstern reflects:
The law of averages, if I have got this right, means that if six monkeys were thrown up in the air for long enough they would land on their tails about as often as they would land on their [heads.]
The monkeys in this passage are carelessly taken from a thought-experiment: Six extremely long-lived monkeys, seated at extremely durable typewriters, are allowed to press the keys at random. It is asserted that sooner or later they would, by sheer chance, type out the complete text of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Who originally devised this thought-experiment? What proposition in mathematics or statistics does it illustrate (if any)? How is it related to the surprising sequence of coin-flips in Stoppard's scene?
Write up your answer and have it ready to turn in at the beginning of class on September 17. It should be legibly typed or set, double-spaced, with ample margins (I recommend an inch and a quarter at top, bottom, and sides), and printed single-sided. If it runs to more than one page, each page after the first should bear your surname and a page number in the upper right-hand corner.
This document is available on the World Wide Web as
http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~stone/courses/stoppard/references.xhtml
created September 9, 2002
last revised September 9, 2002