MelatoninSeven standard "riffle" shuffles are needed to effectively randomize a 52-card deck.
henfredemarsIt’s also not sufficient to randomize a deck of cards using a 32-bit seed as was once common in software.
Indeed, even with a 64 bit seed, it is not sufficient.
Some quick math tells me you need 256 bits. Big numbers are wild
CodexArcanumI got 226 bits?
log2(52!) right?
Yeah looks like I did something wrong. Must have just been looking at the numbers raised by powers of 2. Good find! Thank you
No problem! It only stood out to me because it’d be an amazing coincidence if 52! fit snuggly into 2^8. Being a nerd, I have many powers of 2 memorized!
With a little playing around, it seems like 57! is the last whole number that fits (254.5 bits needed) so you could add a couple of jokers in or even use a tarot deck’s minor arcana (56 cards) and have room with a 256-bit wide BigInt, with a few bits to spare!