2 people each shuffle a deck of 52 playing cards thoroughly.
What is the probabilty of both decks being in the EXACT same order after shuffling?
(In reply to
solution by Gamer)
If the question were whether both decks matched a pre-determined order the answer would be [1/(52!)]²
But the question is both decks matching each other. In this case it does not matter what the first card is, as long as it is the same for both decks. The easiest way to visualize this is to say that the order of the first deck does not matter, except in that it then sets the "pre-determined order" that the second deck must match.
Thus the probability of the question as asked is 1/(52!)
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Posted by TomM
on 2003-03-22 14:31:07 |
re: solution
