Question regarding Heroscape Army Cards...

[Agent Minivann]

Originally Posted by CornPuff

This the math thread(jack)? cool!
Math rocks your world whether you know it or not. IMHO most pople should know probability, combinatorics and statistics, moreso than calculus. For you non-mathy types, you can think of it as advanced counting and risk analysis.

Combinatorics is a new one to me, what is it?

Ah, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. I think that statistics should be taught to everyone in the sense that they need to know what the different types of statistical analyses are. It always bugs me when companies (granted usually infomercial types) make claims based on crappy statistics, and people fall for it big time. Beyond that I think statistics is another one in the category of "a few narrow fields use this intensively".

[CornPuff]

Combinatorics? Its all about counting things while satisfying constraints.

52 factorial = the number of different orderings of a deck of playing cards
Or you can count how many different 5 card hands you could be dealt from that deck. 2598960

Or you can count the number of Perfect Riffle Shuffles it takes before all cards return to their original positions on a deck of N cards. (I dont remember).

A perfect riffle shuffle is when you cut the deck in 2 equal halves, then interleave the cards perfectly (one from the left, then one from the right...). It was part of a hellish project my math teacher gave me

You could also count how many different ways there are to count to 100 using distinct positive integers without regard to order. 190569292

Or you can count the number of ways Deathwalker 9000 can roll all blanks for defense. 1

I think i went a little overboard, but thats just a little taste of Combinatorics...