Mathcad Community Challenge January 2024 - Statistics Happy New Year!
This month’s challenge is based around statistics, specifically permutations and combinations around shuffling a deck of cards. It’s inspired by this article:
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know-infographics/there-are-more-ways-arrange-deck-cards-there-are-atoms-earth
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to perform the following in Mathcad Prime:
(Basic) Calculate the number of ways to shuffle a deck of cards. (Standard 52 card deck, no Jokers).
(Basic) Calculate the number of ways to shuffle a deck of cards if the suit (heart, diamond, spade, club) doesn’t matter.
Calculate the number of ways to shuffle a deck of cards consisting of just the face cards (jacks, queens, and kings). If you could shuffle the deck one time a second, how long would it take to shuffle each possible way? (Express the result in hours, days, or years, whichever is easiest for people to grasp.)
How long would it take to shuffle the face cards until