CARDS ON THE TABLE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 8, 18 August 1939, Page 6

CARDS ON THE TABLE

Facts You May Not Know LEWELLYN ETHERINGTON, of Auckland, will without doubt astonish nearly everyone who listens to the talk written by him and broadcast from 2YA, Wellington, on August 25. Out of an ordinary pack of playing cards he has extracted enough information to make the transmitter masts sway dizzily when it is broadcast. Here are some of his facts, but by no means all of them: The number of different deals which can be made from a pack of cards is 635,000,000,000. These hands can be dealt only in 39 patterns, which recur with varying frequency. One pattern, of 13 cards in one suit, should occur, on the law of averages, once in 158,753,389,900 deals. Mr. Etherington also has some reassuring information for unlucky players, and a knock for oS: stition generally. The talk will show card players how little they really know about cards. What, for instance, does the king of spades hold in his hand, and in which hand does he hold it? Which of the knaves are moustached, which of the kings has royal ermine on his clothes, and which of the queens holds a flower in her hand? Chance, he says, cannot be controlled, but it can be circumvented. Mathematics cannot govern it, but they can define mariy of its probabilities and set them out to guide perplexed Bridge players, for instance. Incidentally, Bridge players will be especially interested in Mr. Etherington, for from their game he has selected a good number of his examples. He believes that Bridge is partly a game of skill, partly a game of chance, and partly a game of probabilities. It is the ability of the player to combine his fortune with his knowledge or perception of probabilities which makes him better or worse than his opponent. He uses hundreds of systems and so-called rules to help him out with his mental calculations. Mr. Etherington shows why it is possible for him to do this and how mathematicians can make a science out of system and superstition. In 163 years, Niagara Falls poured 34,054,938,000, 000 tons of water into Lake Ontario. Anyone could work that out, but not many would take the trouble to work out or collect all the information Mr. Etherington taps for his talk. But we must leave the broadcast to tell you the Test: about the rule of chance which results from the lack of rules; about the impartiality of nature; about Bridge; and tossing coins; and half-a-dozen other things which will carry listeners on astronomical figures close to the ey Aaa SESE — fact and fancy.