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How many lifetimes would it take for the last gear to spin? (youtu.be)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by War5oldier@lemmy.world to c/askscience@lemmy.world

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I've seen this video where GOOGOL gear is depicted (it takes 10^100^ years on reaching the final gear) but how many generations will it take? The 5th gear takes about 10 hours in real time, by the time the 10th one starts spinning (you're probably already dead).

The entire thing consists of 100 gears. However, even if you record or livestream a video of the entire thing: would you still be alive by the time the final gear starts spinning? The common life span of a human is around 72-73 median but some can reach 100+ up to 125.

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[–] morgan_423@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I think most people don't understand how insanely, mind-mindbogglingly large 52! is.

I've received disbelieving replies before after saying that every freshly full-shuffled deck, where that shuffling started from a shuffled state (not new deck order), is in a unique card order never before used by humanity since the invention of the four suit and 52 card deck.

But that statement is absolutely true. The chances of it being false are so microscopically tiny that they are, for all intents and purposes, zero.