According to the laws of probability, it would be nearly impossible for any person to shuffle a deck of cards and have it end up in the same order as any other shuffled deck in history. This fact takes into account a deck of 52 properly shuffled cards, meaning that the cards were truly shuffled in order to create randomization. For example, a perfect shuffle — in which a deck is separated exactly in half and all of the cards are alternatively interlaced in order — is commonly used for magic tricks and would not have randomization. It is commonly accepted protocol that a deck of cards requires seven shuffles to have proper randomization.
More about probability:
- A two-sided coin might not have an equal chance of landing on each side after being flipped. Research has suggested that 51% of the time, the coin will land with the same side up as when it was flipped.
- In a group of 23 people, there is a 50% chance that two of them will have the same birthday.
- It would take about eight perfect shuffles of a deck of cards to get it back to its original order.