Editing 2016: OEIS Submissions

<noinclude>:''"2016", this comic's number, redirects here. For the comic named "2016", see [[1624: 2016]].''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number    = 2016
| date      = July 6, 2018
| title     = OEIS Submissions
| image     = oeis_submissions.png
| titletext = SUB[59]: The submission numbers for my accepted OEIS submissions in chronological order
}}

==Explanation==

The {{w|OEIS}} is the [https://oeis.org/ Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences], a listing of hundreds of thousands of sequences of integers, generally of real mathematical interest, such as {{w|prime number}}s ([https://oeis.org/A000040 A000040]) or {{w|Armstrong number}}s ([https://oeis.org/A005188 A005188]).  The OEIS normally expects submissions to be accompanied by references to scholarly articles about, or at least referencing, the sequence.  They would not be interested in the personal or idiosyncratic sequences proposed by Randall, though they do have the [https://oeis.org/A000053 list of subway stops on the New York City Broadway line (IRT #1)], perhaps because a NY Times article mentioned that they don't. 

Randall is trying to put his integer sequences on the OEIS website, including making OEIS reveal its password.
;sub[43] - All integers which do not appear in the example terms of another OEIS sequence
:Every OEIS sequence lists several example terms to demonstrate the content of said sequence. This request wants to list all integers which are ''not'' used as examples elsewhere. Any numbers used as example terms for this sequence are not counted, so this list is not self-disqualifying. It is well-defined at any given time. Like many other OEIS sequences, it has infinitely many terms (more precisely, it includes all integers except a finite number). However, it may change at any time, whenever a new sequence or a new example is added to the OEIS. If included, it would therefore have to be constantly updated. 
:Such integers are sometimes called "{{w|Interesting number paradox|uninteresting numbers}}" in mathematical terms, and attempts have been made to count them. The list changes, but [http://math.crg4.com/uninteresting.html#note4 in July 2009] it began 11630, 12067, 12407, 12887, 13258...
;sub[44] - Integers in increasing order of width when printed in Helvetica
:This sequence is not uniquely defined as it depends on the specific version of the {{w|Helvetica}} font used, its point size, the software used to render it (e.g. kerning algorithm), the handling of equal widths by the sorting algorithm and possibly other parameters. Also, all digits usually have the same width, with the exception of the sequence "11", which is a tiny bit narrower because a kerning pair exists in Helvetica. Without an additional tie-breaker for equal width numbers, the order is: 1 to 9 in no particular order, 11, 10 and 12 to 99 in no particular order and so on; for a particular choice of parameters the first 50 terms might be: 1, 9, 6, 2, 8, 5, 0, 7, 3, 4, 11, 61, 71, 91, 21, 51, 81, 41, 31, 19, 13, 18, 10, 12, 15, 16, 14, 17, 69, 63, 68, 79, 60, 62, 65, 73, 78, 99, 93, 98, 66, 70, 72, 75, 29, 90, 92, 95, 23, 28... 
:Despite all of the above issues, and as a direct response to this comic, a well-defined version of this sequence was [https://oeis.org/A316599 added to the OEIS].
;sub[45] - The digits of Chris Hemsworth's cell phone number
:An attempt to {{w|Phishing|phish}} the phone number of actor {{w|Chris Hemsworth}}. Whilst there ''is'' a loophole to this request (the correct ordering of the digits isn't specified), knowing what digits there are in the first place may help narrow down what his number is.
;sub[46] - All integers, in descending order
:To list all integers in descending order, you would have to begin at the largest integer, but there is no largest integer, so this is impossible. It is equally impossible to list all integers in ''ascending'' order, for that matter.
:On the other hand, [https://oeis.org/A001477 A001477] is the sequence of all nonnegative integers in ascending order, as there is the smallest nonnegative integer. Also, [https://oeis.org/A001057 A001057] is the sequence of all integers, but in canonical order (i.e. by increasing absolute value).
;sub[47] - The digits of the OEIS serial number for this sequence
:This sequence is only important tautologically. 
;sub[48] - 200 terabytes of nines
:This submission appears to be a joke on common video game limits for, e.g., currency or ammunition, in which the maximum a player can carry is one less than a power of 10. This sequence would be entirely useless, as there is no mental effort required to conceive a list that consists only of a single repeated term, however arbitrarily large. Such a list is also incredibly wasteful; to give a comparison, [https://phys.org/news/2016-05-math-proof-largest-terabytes.html this very large math proof from 2016] is also 200 terabytes, and requires a supercomputer to hold in its entirety.<br/>
:200 terabytes is equal to 2&nbsp;×&nbsp;10<sup>14</sup> bytes. In UTF-8, each ASCII character, including control characters such as ␂ (start of text) and ␍ (carriage return), can be represented by a single byte. If the list is presumed to be formatted as "␂9␍9␍9 ... 9␍9␃", the first term would take up 3 bytes, and all other terms would take up 2 bytes. Assuming Randall wants the file size to be 200 terabytes ''minimum'', the resulting list would be a minimum of 1&nbsp;×&nbsp;10<sup>14</sup>, or 100 trillion, terms long.
:Curiously, OEIS does in fact contain an entry that lists "[https://oeis.org/A010734 all nines]" which contains this proposal as a subsequence.
;sub[49] - The decimal representation of the bytes in the root password to the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences server
:This would give any user the password to OEIS. Anyone can {{w|Internet troll|easily forecast}} what happens next. Perhaps the idea is to hack OEIS on the premise that accepting this sequence will force OEIS staff to populate it.
;sub[59] (title text) - The submission numbers for my accepted OEIS submissions in chronological order
:This would only be useful to Randall. If all of his submissions have been rejected, this would be an empty set. However, if this submission is accepted, the set would, by definition, include at least one number (except that this would not be known at the time of submission). Thus, as in the Russell Paradox, this set would be out of date as soon as it was accepted, since the set of accepted submission numbers would change at that point.
:Currently, it has two known numbers: 44 and 48. Other sequences suggested by Randall not listed (1-42 and 50-58, and an unknown number of submissions from 60 onwards) may or may not be accepted, but since those sequences are not known it is not known whether they were accepted.

==Transcript==
:SUB[43]: All integers which do not appear in the example terms of another OEIS sequence
:SUB[44]: Integers in increasing order of width when printed in Helvetica
:SUB[45]: The digits of Chris Hemsworth's cell phone number
:SUB[46]: All integers, in descending order
:SUB[47]: The digits of the OEIS serial number for this sequence
:SUB[48]: 200 terabytes of nines
:SUB[49]: The decimal representation of the bytes in the root password to the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences server

:[Caption below the panel:]
:OEIS keeps rejecting my submissions

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]