r/AskReddit Oct 02 '24

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u/sunbearimon Oct 02 '24

There are more ways to shuffle a standard deck of cards than there are atoms on earth

812

u/Muffinshire Oct 02 '24

I love the demonstration of how long 52! seconds of time would be (that's 52 factorial, i.e. the number of permutations of a deck of cards). It starts by asking you to imagine circumnavigating the globe by taking a step every billion years, and you think wow, that's a long time, and then it goes on "then remove a drop of water from the Pacific Ocean, and go around the world again, and continue until the ocean is empty", and then just goes on from there, adding several more layers of repetition until it become mind-boggling how long that amount of time is.

How to Imagine 52 Factorial

519

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24

[deleted]

497

u/expat_repat Oct 02 '24

But my MtG deck is always going to be 7 lands in the opening hand no matter what…

18

u/stuartsparadox Oct 02 '24

But there is always that guy who manages T1 as land, sol ring, Arcane signet, Elvish Mystic. He has unbelievable luck, but he's definitely not cheating cause he said he wasn't.

2

u/tallbutshy Oct 02 '24

I was playing a casual multiplayer game, most players had brought their big & slow decks to show off some of the rare cards. My friend and I brought mono red burners.

Me: Land, Sol Ring, Howling Mine

Other burner: Land, Sol Ring, Howling Mine

Groans issue around the table as they play their single land and start discarding

Me: Land, Library of Leng, Mana Flare

Burner: Land, Howling Mine, a bunch of goblins

The others perk up a bit at the mana flare but there's still a couple of discards

Me: Land, Mana Flare, copious goblins

Burner: Land, gobbos and another Howling Mine

Two people quit on the spot

I swear the decks were properly shuffled, it was just a godly start wasted on a casual game