Decks of cards. There are so many different combinations possible in a pack of 52, that if you were to pick up a deck of randomly shuffled cards, you are almost certainly the first person to hold those cards in that order.
Here's another way of looking at it:
"Imagine the total possible combination figure as time, a countdown clock that counts down from 8.065x10^68 seconds to Zero. How long would it be?
Well, first take any spot on the equator of the Earth. Take ONE step, after every ONE BILLION years. Keep doing this until you complete an entire round around earth. After one round is completed, take ONE DROP of water from the Pacific Ocean and put it aside. Keep doing both of these (completing a round then taking a drop) till the Pacific Ocean has dried out. Once the Pacific Ocean has dried out, place a sheet of paper on the ground. Now keep doing all of these (completing a round, taking a drop, placing a sheet of paper) till the tower of the sheet of paper REACHES THE SUN.
With this, the clock would have reached down TO... 8.062 x 10^68 seconds. Repeat all of this about 1000 times and you would be one-third of the way through."
Decks of cards. There are so many different combinations possible in a pack of 52, that if you were to pick up a deck of randomly shuffled cards, you are almost certainly the first person to hold those cards in that order.
Here's another way of looking at it:
"Imagine the total possible combination figure as time, a countdown clock that counts down from 8.065x10^68 seconds to Zero. How long would it be?
Well, first take any spot on the equator of the Earth. Take ONE step, after every ONE BILLION years. Keep doing this until you complete an entire round around earth. After one round is completed, take ONE DROP of water from the Pacific Ocean and put it aside. Keep doing both of these (completing a round then taking a drop) till the Pacific Ocean has dried out. Once the Pacific Ocean has dried out, place a sheet of paper on the ground. Now keep doing all of these (completing a round, taking a drop, placing a sheet of paper) till the tower of the sheet of paper REACHES THE SUN.
With this, the clock would have reached down TO... 8.062 x 10^68 seconds. Repeat all of this about 1000 times and you would be one-third of the way through."
Really?I just looked up the average number of steps it takes to walk a mile: 2000, which would mean it would take 2000 billion years to walk 1 mile. The circumference of the world is 24,901 miles which means it would take 49,802,000 billion years to walk round the Earth. This is before you empty the Pacific Ocean one drop at a time and build a tower of paper to the sun. I can't believe 52 playing cards could create so many permutations, but then I always a dunce at maths.
To put this in perspective, the dinosaurs died out 65,000,000 years ago, and the age of the earth is just 4,500,000,000 years. Now suppose everybody in the world was to arrange packs of cards at the rate of one per second, it would take 600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years to get all the combinations! That's why you're VERY unlikely ever to shuffle a pack of cards the same way twice.
To put this in perspective, the dinosaurs died out 65,000,000 years ago, and the age of the earth is just 4,500,000,000 years. Now suppose everybody in the world was to arrange packs of cards at the rate of one per second, it would take 600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years to get all the combinations! That's why you're VERY unlikely ever to shuffle a pack of cards the same way twice.
Wow...I stand corrected. Edit: just looked up the word for 67 zeros which is septensexagintillion.
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is a palindrome
If you put an onion in a Martini it's called a Gibson.
Steam rollers don't roll steam.
Here's another way of looking at it:
"Imagine the total possible combination figure as time, a countdown clock that counts down from 8.065x10^68 seconds to Zero. How long would it be?
Well, first take any spot on the equator of the Earth. Take ONE step, after every ONE BILLION years. Keep doing this until you complete an entire round around earth. After one round is completed, take ONE DROP of water from the Pacific Ocean and put it aside. Keep doing both of these (completing a round then taking a drop) till the Pacific Ocean has dried out. Once the Pacific Ocean has dried out, place a sheet of paper on the ground. Now keep doing all of these (completing a round, taking a drop, placing a sheet of paper) till the tower of the sheet of paper REACHES THE SUN.
With this, the clock would have reached down TO... 8.062 x 10^68 seconds. Repeat all of this about 1000 times and you would be one-third of the way through."
The circumference of the world is 24,901 miles which means it would take 49,802,000 billion years to walk round the Earth. This is before you empty the Pacific Ocean one drop at a time and build a tower of paper to the sun.
I can't believe 52 playing cards could create so many permutations, but then I always a dunce at maths.
The sum is 52x51x50x49x48....x4x3x2x1 and the answer is roughly:
80,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
That's an 8 with 67 zeros after it.
To put this in perspective, the dinosaurs died out 65,000,000 years ago, and the age of the earth is just 4,500,000,000 years. Now suppose everybody in the world was to arrange packs of cards at the rate of one per second, it would take 600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years to get all the combinations! That's why you're VERY unlikely ever to shuffle a pack of cards the same way twice.
Edit: just looked up the word for 67 zeros which is septensexagintillion.
plus VAT.
a man a plan a canal panama
It is quite big....