Problems

Many magicians can perform what is known as the Faro shuffle. Actually there are two kinds of Faro shuffle: the in Faro shuffle and the out Faro shuffle.

Let us assume that the deck has an even number of cards. The first step of the Faro shuffle is to divide the deck into two smaller decks of equal size. One deck consist of the top half of the original deck in their original order. The other deck consists of the bottom half of the original deck in their original order.

The second step of the Faro shuffle is to interweave the two decks, so that each card is above and beneath a card of the opposite deck. This is where the in Faro and the out Faro differ: the in Faro changes the top and bottom cards of the original deck (from before step one) while the out Faro retains the original top and bottom cards.

Show that only 8 out Faro shuffles are needed to return a standard 52 card deck back into its original position.

How can you move the top card to any position in an even size deck using only Faro shuffles?

You have a deck of \(n\) distinct cards. Deal out \(k\) cards from the top one by one and put the rest of the deck on top of the \(k\) cards. What is the minimum number of times you need to repeat the action to return every card back to its position?

Take a pile of cards, Ace to 7 of Diamonds. Consider the following shuffle: simultaneously move the first card to the third position, the third card to the fifth position, the fifth card to the seventh position, and the seventh card to the first position. Also move the second card to the fourth position, the fourth card to the sixth position and the sixth card to the second position.

How many times do you have to do this one specific shuffle in a row to get back to where you started?

How many permutations are there of 4 cards leaving no card in the same position as before?

Given a pile of five cards, is it true that reversing the order of the pile by counting the cards out one by one leaves no card in its original position?

With a pile of four cards, does reversing the order of the pile by counting the cards out one by one leaves no card in its original position?

You have in your hands a royal flush! That is, Ace, King, Queen, Jack and \(10\) of spades. How many shuffles of your hand swap the Ace and Jack?

Each square in a \(3\times3\) grid of squares is coloured red, white, blue, or green so that every \(2\times2\) square contains one square of each color. One such colouring is shown below. How many different colourings are possible?

There are two imposters and seven crewmates on the rocket ‘Plus’. How many ways are there for the nine people to split into three groups of three, such that each group has at least two crewmates? The two imposters and seven crewmates are all distinguishable from each other, but we’re not concerned with the order of the three groups.

For example: \(\{I_1,C_1,C_2\}\), \(\{I_2,C_3,C_4\}\) and \(\{C_5,C_6,C_7\}\) is the same as \(\{C_3,C_4,I_2\}\), \(\{C_5,C_6,C_7\}\) and \(\{I_1,C_2,C_1\}\) but different from \(\{I_2,C_1,C_2\}\), \(\{I_1,C_3,C_4\}\) and \(\{C_5,C_6,C_7\}\).