Voron
That's ok, that's why they invented geeks and nerds...6 Haunted Days said:Hmmm about that math LOL Never my strong suit in school, and I look at sets of numbers and feel the frustration and tears coming on. So I will take your word for it and just know that there are a hellavuh lot of different combinations!
The general form of the equation is:
possible combinations = (a^n*(x!/(x-n)!))/n!
where
x is the number of cards in the deck, (78 for tarot)
n is the number of cards in the draw, and
a is the number of permutations per card (so for just reversals a=2, but if you put cards sideways, a=4).
! is a factorial: e.g. 5! = 5*4*3*2*1 = 120
This assumes you don't care which order the cards are stacked.
For three cards this gives 608,608 combinations (simple reversals).
For four cards: 22,822,800
For five cards: 675,554,880
For six: 16,438,502,080
Over 16.4 billion!!!
Incidentally, this can be used to calculate the number of possible spreads. (where order is important, the final division by n! is skipped)
For example, for an 11 card Celtic cross with reversals, there are 6.359 x 10^23 possible combinations. This is *more* than the total number of molecules in 18 mL of water!!!!
Btw, Sidhe-Ra, I think your idea and execution is brilliant and fabulous! I must have one! Hopefully I will be able to scrounge up the $$ in time! Please reserve one for me! (no hurry though)