I play a lot of card games, mostly bridge. People shuffle cards in many ways and this video shows how well cards get mixed when you do so. It turns out that whichever method you choose, shuffling it seven times pretty much mixes the cards equally well.
(Via Cory Doctorow.)
John Morales says
Can’t help themselves, can they? Bloody bullshit music in the background, offering me the option of turning the sound off (thus missing the narration) or putting up with it, or giving up.
(I gave up)
chigau (違う) says
Turn the sound off and the closed captions on.
John Morales says
Huh, it actually works surprisingly well, chigau, though still imperftectly. Thanks.
(Heh, and it keeps coming up with “[music]” during the speech pauses)
Dunc says
Slightly disappointed to see no mention of the Faro Shuffle…
Jenora Feuer says
@Dunc:
Hmm, I remember reading about the deck manipulation aspect of the shuffle… might have been Martin Gardner; it was either him or Douglas Hofstadter. Have to see if I can find that again.