It's amazing how high a number you can get to with a deck of cards!
Apr. 20th, 2026 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewduckerWould you like your mind blown?
To imagine the number of ways a standard pack of playing cards can be uniquely shuffled, follow these simple instructions:
Go to the equator with a deck of cards and start shuffling them. Shuffle them so that every second you produce a new and unique ordering of cards. Keep shuffling them over and over, a new ordering, every second, for a billion years.
At the end of a billion years take a single step forward.
Keep shuffling.
Every billion years keep taking a single step forward.
Once you have circumnavigated the Earth, take a single drop of water out of the Pacific Ocean. Keep shuffling. Keep taking a single step every billion years. Keep taking a single drop of water out of the Pacific Ocean each time you walk around the Earth.
Once the Pacific Ocean is dry, refill it and place a single piece of paper on the ground.
Keep shuffling.
Keep taking billion year steps. Keep taking a drop out of the Pacific Ocean with each return to your start point. Keep refilling the Pacific Ocean once dry. Keep building your tower of paper one sheet at a time.
Once your tower of paper is as tall as Mount Everest, throw it away and place a single grain of sand on a weighing scale.
Don't stop shuffling.
Don't stop taking a step every billion years.
Don't stop emptying the Pacific Ocean and refilling it to build an Everest of paper.
Don't stop throwing your paper tower away to place another grain of sand on your weighing scales.
On the other side of your scale is a bull elephant. When it raises off the ground you will be half way done.
To see the maths behind this, click here.
(With thanks to my brother Mike, who saw a version of this which wasn't as good, rewrote chunks of it and did the maths.)
To imagine the number of ways a standard pack of playing cards can be uniquely shuffled, follow these simple instructions:
Go to the equator with a deck of cards and start shuffling them. Shuffle them so that every second you produce a new and unique ordering of cards. Keep shuffling them over and over, a new ordering, every second, for a billion years.
At the end of a billion years take a single step forward.
Keep shuffling.
Every billion years keep taking a single step forward.
Once you have circumnavigated the Earth, take a single drop of water out of the Pacific Ocean. Keep shuffling. Keep taking a single step every billion years. Keep taking a single drop of water out of the Pacific Ocean each time you walk around the Earth.
Once the Pacific Ocean is dry, refill it and place a single piece of paper on the ground.
Keep shuffling.
Keep taking billion year steps. Keep taking a drop out of the Pacific Ocean with each return to your start point. Keep refilling the Pacific Ocean once dry. Keep building your tower of paper one sheet at a time.
Once your tower of paper is as tall as Mount Everest, throw it away and place a single grain of sand on a weighing scale.
Don't stop shuffling.
Don't stop taking a step every billion years.
Don't stop emptying the Pacific Ocean and refilling it to build an Everest of paper.
Don't stop throwing your paper tower away to place another grain of sand on your weighing scales.
On the other side of your scale is a bull elephant. When it raises off the ground you will be half way done.
To see the maths behind this, click here.
(With thanks to my brother Mike, who saw a version of this which wasn't as good, rewrote chunks of it and did the maths.)
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