4 May
2007
4 May
'07
8:56 p.m.
The general solution of the probability of a collision after d draws from n possible values is given by:
P = 1 - ((n!) / ((n**d)((n-d)!)))
Given that the value for n is 2.199,023,255,552, then the objective is to find the lowest value of d for which P is greater than or equal to 0.5. In this case the value for d is some 1.24 million.
Are people going to pick random values? I'd expect a more likely outcome to be that they will pick strings that are easy to remember. How many collisions will there be if that is the case? Remember DEADBEEF? --Vince