HackerTube.dev

Math Magic

Vsauce · 14M views · 2016-02-05 · 19:31

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

Vsauce explores math through card tricks and big numbers, including an animation of how enormous 52 factorial, the number of deck orderings, really is.

On Hacker News

Cited for its well-known attempt to convey the size of 52 factorial.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2016–2024

Topics

Search by tags

What people said

redundantly · 2024-12 · Recommendation

The number you're thinking of is 52! (52 factorial) and how long it would take for 52! seconds to pass by. Vsauce has a great video on this, and might be where that example was taken from. [VIDEO] That example starts 16 minutes into the video: [VIDEO] But it's worth watching the whole thing.

Read the original HN comment ↗
Kortaggio · 2016-06 · Recommendation

Vsauce has a fantastic animation of this too: [VIDEO] Deal yourself five cards every billion years. When you finally deal yourself a royal flush, buy a lottery ticket. If the ticket wins the lottery, throw a single grain of sand into the Grand Canyon. As soon as the Grand Canyon is completely full of sand, remove one ounce of rock from Mount Everest. By the time Mount Everest is level: take a look at the clock. You'll have to do the whole thing all over again 256 more times before your timer reaches zero.

Read the original HN comment ↗
danbruc · 2023-11 · Reference

A commonly quoted number for the number of particles in the observable universe is 10^80 give or take a few orders of magnitude an they have very roughly 10^10^10^2 permutations if you consider all particles distinguishable. The best known lower bound for BB(6, 2) seems to be 10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10^10 which is more like the number of permutations of permutations of permutations of permutations of permutations of permutations of permutations of permutations of permutations of permutations of permutations of permutations of the particles in the universe. Trying to comprehend or compare the size of BB(745) is just futile. Here [1] is a well known attempt to convey the size of 52!, the number of permutations of a deck of cards. [1] [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Vsauce, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources