Numerical answer
The five sentences below, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Decide on the correct order.
1. Economists call this a coordination problem: each keyboard layout's usefulness depends entirely on how many other people already use it, not on its intrinsic merits.
2. The QWERTY keyboard layout, designed in the 1870s partly to prevent early typewriter mechanisms from jamming, has long outlived the mechanical constraint that shaped it.
3. Consequently, layouts demonstrably faster to learn, such as Dvorak, have existed for nearly a century without displacing QWERTY in any significant market.
4. Modern keyboards have no jamming mechanism to protect, yet QWERTY remains the near-universal standard across languages and devices.
5. No individual typist gains enough from switching alone to justify relearning a skill practised over a lifetime, even if the collective switch would benefit typists broadly.
1. Economists call this a coordination problem: each keyboard layout's usefulness depends entirely on how many other people already use it, not on its intrinsic merits.
2. The QWERTY keyboard layout, designed in the 1870s partly to prevent early typewriter mechanisms from jamming, has long outlived the mechanical constraint that shaped it.
3. Consequently, layouts demonstrably faster to learn, such as Dvorak, have existed for nearly a century without displacing QWERTY in any significant market.
4. Modern keyboards have no jamming mechanism to protect, yet QWERTY remains the near-universal standard across languages and devices.
5. No individual typist gains enough from switching alone to justify relearning a skill practised over a lifetime, even if the collective switch would benefit typists broadly.
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Answer: 24135
Sentence 2 introduces QWERTY's origin. Sentence 4 notes the constraint is gone yet the layout persists, setting up the puzzle. Sentence 1 supplies the economic explanation (coordination problem). Sentence 3 gives the consequence (Dvorak's failure to displace it). Sentence 5 closes with the individual-level mechanism behind that consequence. Order: 2-4-1-3-5.
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