next up previous
Next: Enumerations related to Up: How big is Previous: Example Application 1

Example Application 2

Deal two packs of shuffled cards simultaneously. What is the probability that no pair of identical cards will be exposed simultaneously?

Fix the first pack, and consider all possible rearrangements of the second pack. For each i in the range let denote the set of all arrangements of the second pack which happen to have the property that the card in position i matches the card in position i of the first pack. Obviously for every Moreover, if then and so on. Let so the probability of at least one match is We calculate this using the inclusion-exclusion principle.

Thus the probability of no coincidences is (to an excellent approximation)

Here we have use the fact that

and put


Geoff C Smith
Tue Jun 9 10:45:46 BST 1998