St.Mary's

Gigantic number, absolutely. Never before seen, --Oh, you're thinking of the U.S. national debt and what the dollar will be worth in not so many years

clint f. Loc: Priest Lake Idaho, Spokane Wa

I’m not sure what I would have thought if I didn’t watch the video.

clint f. Loc: Priest Lake Idaho, Spokane Wa

I didn’t hear two in a row. It’s the odds of an individual number. But I am assuredly not a math guy.

gpc

ditto factorial

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

A question of semantics. Ever means 'not ever'. Even if a shuffle is instantaneous.

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

Off topic but cards are amazing. They count for themselves and do all kinds of mathematics. If you set up a deck in order and cut it as you would normally no matter how many times you cut the deck the cards will remain in order. Unless you pull the middle out. A single cut no matter how many times will not mess them up. Google Amazingkesken he was a magician and had a ton of card tricks based on the mathmatics of cards.

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

Interesting analysis of big numbers in a attempt to make the incomprehensible, comprehensible. Big numbers and their counterpart, small numbers (smaller than 1) are so far out of peoples every day experience, there's nothing for them for comparison. A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I was an analytical chemist who's job was to measure very small quantities of toxic chemicals. If I said something was 11 nanograms vs something that was 135 picograms, most people would look at it and say that 135 is a bigger number than 11. Nanogram and picograms meant nothing.

I set out to create an example to demonstrate in a comprehensible way how big numbers really were. This video used the number of molecules in a mole (23 power) as an example to compare 52 factorial. In practical terms, a table spoon of water contains a little less than a mole of water (15 grams vs 18 grams). If one were to add a million and a half molecules of water to an empty tablespoon every second, ignoring evaporation, how long would it take to fill the tablespoon. There are two answers, one theoretical and one practical. The theoretical answer is 13 billion years, the age of the universe and the practical answer is never because in 5 billion years our sun will expand and consume the earth and we will cease to exist along with that tablespoon.

Years ago, Carl Sagan had a TV show called Cosmos and on one episode, he compared the age of the universe to one calendar year. In that scenario, with the age of the universe being one year, Christ was born 5 seconds before midnight on December 31st.

Big numbers, something to talk about and try to comprenend!!

clint f. Loc: Priest Lake Idaho, Spokane Wa

One of my uncles said you should always carry a deck of cards if you are hiking alone in unfamiliar wilderness. If you get lost pull out a deck of cards and deal a solitaire hand. Someone will come along and tell you to play the black 4 on the white 5. Problem solved.

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

He may very well be correct. Lol

scallihan Loc: Tigard, OR

And an exponentially higher number if you include the Jokers!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yeah, Jokers are wild!

Laramie Loc: Tempe

I knew a guy in college who grew up in Las Vegas. This guy was trying to get into dealing blackjack at the showboat casino (long time ago). One day we were at his house and his dad came and told us to never play anything is the dealer deals out of hand. Then he showed us. We six stood around a blackjack table and he dealt a full hand, all from the bottom. He told us to watch him, but no one saw anything. Turns out he was the dealer in "Cool Hand Luke" and could deal a table of blackjack and place his second card down before the cards stopped sliding. Pretty cool.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's why I never gamble.