You’ve played “52-Pickup.” Now play “52-Factorial”

by Vanderleun on January 3, 2021

If you are going to play “52-factorial” seriously… pack a lunch.

Via TwistedSifter

{ 9 comments… add one }

M. Murcek January 4, 2021, 5:28 AM

…it buggers the imagination… (aplogies to Mrs. Malaprop)

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Rob Muir January 4, 2021, 7:45 AM

IIRC, my old HP-41CV would only return a numerical result up to about 47! due to memory limitations. When doing permutations and combinations calcs, we often had to reduce the numerator and denominator before plugging the rest into the calculator to get the final result. That was only sensible and kept us from being lazy. Good times!

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Nevadacitygal January 4, 2021, 9:22 AM

I was in first grade when I first encountered the amazingly complicated math problem of 1+1=2 written by the teacher on the blackboard. Me, being an avid reader even at that age (if you count picture books as avid reading) stared at that equation and thought ‘I will NEVER understand this!’. Well, at 67 years of age, my fear of math has not abated one bit. This 52 factorial thing has just confirmed that math really isn’t my thing. And I am in awe of people who are math wizards!

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Auntie Analogue January 4, 2021, 3:58 PM

Can I get the guy in that video to come over and balance my checkbook?

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azlibertarian January 5, 2021, 7:01 AM

@Auntie
“Can I get the guy in that video to come over and balance my checkbook?”

The kids snicker: “Did you hear that? That Boomer lady still uses a checkbook.”

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Auntie Analogue January 5, 2021, 7:29 AM

My dear azlibertarian, thanks for the laugh. Yet when I send them checks my kids don’t snicker. And I’ll bet that when their parents send them checks, other kids don’t snicker either – and they get real busy signing the endorsements in that supposedly obsolete cursive.

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azlibertarian January 5, 2021, 11:34 AM

Yeah, our (adult) kids like receiving dollars from mom and dad, but their preferred method is a transfer straight into their accounts…like God Almighty Hisself had looked over their plight and dropped a benevolence into their lives. Reminds me of the soon-to-be-a-cancer-on-our-financial-lives that is what they’re calling a “Digital Dollar”. Watch out for that one.

Mrs. azlib and I pay our bills twice a month and each time we do, we reconcile and balance the checkbook to the penny. It has taken me more years than I should admit, but I have finally convinced my beautiful bride that when we run across that occasional 5 cent error, that it is perfectly ok to simply make the correction in the register rather than hunt through each entry to see exactly which transaction was entered in error. The value of your time is worth more than the correction. Dunno if my kids have ever balanced their checkbooks. They wonder why put in the effort at all…just accept the bank’s figure and move on.

At the rate at which our dollar is devaluing, they might have a point.

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Vanderleun January 5, 2021, 12:06 PM

Dear AZ,
Once you understand that the dollar is the new dime it all follows.

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azlibertarian January 5, 2021, 12:48 PM

Oh, I understand. I understand that this does not end well for any of us..not at all. The Federal Reserve is rapidly becoming what we used to joke about….Venezuela or Zimbabwe.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SA0R

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You’ve played “52-Pickup.” Now play “52-Factorial”

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