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The Number of Ways You Can Put Together 6 LEGO Bricks Will Astound You

1 minute read

With the Danish documentary on LEGO, A LEGO Brickumentary, premiering in U.S. theaters, iTunes, and OnDemand Friday, the gaming news website Kotaku posted a clip from the film profiling the math professor who became famous for calculating that there are 915,103,765 ways to combine six, eight-stud LEGO bricks.

Inspired by a LEGOLAND display that seemed to lowball the number at 103 million, Søren Eilers from the University of Copenhagen created a computer program that now drums up that figure in 5 minutes. Why was LEGO’s estimate off? Eilers says it’s because it only counted the ways bricks could be stacked on top of each other in tower formations, not accounting how low, wide structures can be put together.

To figure out how many ways seven bricks can be combined, it took Eilers two hours. Eight bricks? Nearly 21 days (20.83 to be exact). Nine? Ten? That would take years, hundreds of years, he says, so something to think about if you have some free time this summer.

See Celebrities and Their Lego Figures

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Chris Pratt: Owen GradyUniversal; Lego
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Chris Pratt: Star LordDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Zoe Saldana: GamoraDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Dave Bautista: DraxDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Robert Downey Jr.: Iron ManDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Chris Evans: Captain AmericaDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Chris Hemsworth: ThorDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Scarlett Johansson: Black WidowDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Jeremy Renner: HawkeyeDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Mark Ruffalo: HulkDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Paul Bettany: VisionDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Elizabeth Olsen: Scarlet WitchDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Aaron Taylor-Johnson: QuicksilverDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Cobie Smulders: Agent Maria HillDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Tom Hiddleston: LokiDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Samuel L. Jackson: Nick FuryDisney/Marvel; Lego
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Samuel L. Jackson: Mace WinduLucasfilm/Disney; Lego
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Mark Hamill: Luke SkywalkerLucasfilm/Disney; Lego
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Harrison Ford: Han SoloLucasfilm/Disney; Lego
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Harrison Ford: Indiana JonesParamount; Lego
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Carrie Fisher: Leia OrganaLucasfilm/Disney; Lego
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Billy Dee Williams: Lando CalrissianLucasfilm/Disney; Lego
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Christopher Lee: Count DookuLucasfilm/Disney; Lego
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Christopher Lee: SarumanNew Line Cinema; Lego
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Sir Ian Mckellen: Gandalf the GreyNew Line Cinema; Lego
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Elijah Wood: Frodo BagginsNew Line Cinema; Lego
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Sean Astin: Samwise GamgeeNew Line Cinema; Lego
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Viggo Mortensen: AragornNew Line Cinema; Lego
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Orlando Bloom: LegolasNew Line Cinema; Lego
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John Rhys-Davies: GimliNew Line Cinema; Lego
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Hugo Weaving: ElrondNew Line Cinema; Lego
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Daniel Radcliffe: Harry PotterWarner Bros.; Lego
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Emma Watson: Hermione GrangerWarner Bros.; Lego
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Rupert Grint: Ron WeasleyWarner Bros.; Lego
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Alan Rickman: Professor SnapeWarner Bros.; Lego
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Helena Bonham Carter: Bellatrix LestrangeWarner Bros.; Lego

 

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Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com