Is every card shuffle unique?
Why every card shuffle is an unprecedented event in the history of the universe.
Can it really be true that every shuffle of a deck of cards is unique? Mathematician and stand-up comedian Matt Parker claims that every time you do a shuffle, the cards have never been in that order before.
But how can he be so confident? Matt came into the studio armed with a deck of cards and some very big calculations to back up his big assertion, and introduced us to the mind-splitting mathematical world of factorials and combinatorics.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Nathan Gower
Series producer: Tom Colls
Sound engineer: James Beard
Programme co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Richard Vadon
Last on
Broadcasts
- Sat 5 Sep 2026 05:50麻豆社 World Service except Australasia, East and Southern Africa, East Asia & South Asia & Live News
- Sun 6 Sep 2026 00:50麻豆社 World Service Australasia
- Sun 6 Sep 2026 05:50麻豆社 World Service East and Southern Africa, South Asia & East Asia only
- Sun 6 Sep 2026 09:50麻豆社 World Service Europe and the Middle East & West and Central Africa only
- Sun 6 Sep 2026 11:50麻豆社 World Service except East and Southern Africa, Europe and the Middle East & West and Central Africa
Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU
Explore how numbers shape, and sometimes mislead us, with The Open University.
When can you trust statistics?
麻豆社 Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.
Podcast
-
![]()
More or Less
Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life.
