The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09
THE WONDERS OF
 A PACK OF CARDS
, inc Strand Magazine.

-1From the Strand Magazine
 / Let us suppose that two thousand N millions of human beings-each sup
 piled with a pack of cards-were 10 attempt actually to produce every pos sible arrangement of the b2 cards. IL is further to be supposed that they l Work ceaselessly, without rest day or
 night, from years end to years enc, at the rate of one new arrahse selieii. U
 per second for each person during a N pAriod of 100000 years. one slngle NHhousand takes us back to the remote Edays of King Alfred, and to go pach
 rso the birth of Christ requires less than another thousand. Only about S1oo F years have elapsed since Moses leo the r Israelites out of Egypt. Finally, pc
 ,.iod only -one-fifteenth of our hundred
 thousand years takes us back a great
 way beyond the most remote fact or au-
 thentic history.
 The hypothesis from which we start
 Is therefore that a population one | ouarter more than that which now II exists has spent it's whole time during | an interval more than 50 times the Il duration of the Christian era Is shur- | fling cards at the rate of one shunle + per second, or more than 31,0O0,ooo II shuffies per head in each year.
 H In view of such figures the reader may II well ask how many times the total num- N Der of arrangements will nave been pro, ,uced by this vast amount Of sustained Ihough il-directedD human e1ort.
 |4 The answer is, not once.
 |1 Mathematical calculation proves, III E fact, that the number of card arrange N ments produced under tne coiieisioiS e.S,;1 os II sur1ed will only be a minute fraction or the total possible number-a fraction so e.inute that it becomes necessary to de- wise another scheme of concrete repre- sentation in order to give an idea or US minuteness. [A Let it. therefore be further assulleo |lA lat the whole vast number of arrange | cents produced by the human race as |.lhove is symbolized by one drop of wa Her Then how much water would De |Z renuired to symboliZe the total huiiiper possible? If this question is put to the reader he might well say, surely giass | of water would be enough! but, ho. "A ,a ..f1 of wafer. then?" No. "A large Il raservoir?r No, my friend; you must en- | large vour conceptions, or you will never | reach the truth "The Atlantic ocean, then9 The number of drops in that Will | surely be sufficient l., | But the number of drops or water III III Il the Atlantic ocean is not suitlcleh., hoi Il uill if become sufficient even when we aaa to the Atlantic ocean the Pacihc ' and all the other oceans, seas, lakes' ' and indeed. all the rest of the water on Ilour eIobe Nor would the whole eartn Eade. from center to surface entlreiy or 0,ter be sufficient; nor would the wh9ie | Edn. similarly constituted, be sunicleht. | xncredible though it may seem' to op.alii 'eIa ~ youme of water containing sufficient |Enurber. of drops, it is necessary to mag 0Ine a globe of water with diameter I equal to seven thousands and twenty-five ,nillions of miles. If the center or such
 a globe is taken at the center or the sun. then Neptune the remotesr planet ! in the solar system, would be immersed
 therein to a depth no les than 7Oo,ooo
 600 of miles; in other words, such pan or uatar would have a diameter about
 N5 per cent greater than that of the
 AGhole solar system as at present known.