THE VIDEO SHELF · mathematics of card shuffling
The Best (and Worst) Ways to Shuffle Cards - Numberphile
Persi Diaconis explains on Numberphile the mathematics of card shuffling, including why seven riffle shuffles are needed to randomize a deck and how different shuffles compare.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN points to it as a good, anecdote-filled introduction to the math of shuffling from the expert himself.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Numberphile
- Topic
- mathematics of card shuffling
- Format
- interview
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 3
- HN mentions in dataset
- 4
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2015–2026
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
This video from Numberphile goes in depth about this: [LINK] . The guy talking, is Persi Diaconis, is the main author of the paper this article is based upon. He also has done research on the randomness of shuffling cards: [VIDEO] . Pretty cool stuff!
shuriu on Hacker News · 2015-07
In The Coin Flip: A Fundamentally Unfair Proposition? (2009)There's a great numberphile with Persi Diaconis all about shuffling: [VIDEO] The extra footage is fantastic, too.
evanb on Hacker News · 2018-06
In The Math of Card ShufflingNumberphile has a video with Persi Diaconis about the seven perfect shuffles. It gives a lot of insight and anectdotes in addition to the central theorem: [VIDEO]
fisian on Hacker News · 2026-06
In Seven Perfect Shuffles Randomize a Deck of Cards. But How Many Sloppy Ones?
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.