Logic versus Logic

Two Tarot readers were discussing the most common (10 card) spread.

They decided, to make things simpler, they would not use the full 78 cards, but just the 22 Major Arcana: and were arguing how many possible combinations there were?

Reader A used logic ...

"Well, each card could be any one of twenty-two, therefore it must be 22 to the power of 10 ... 22x22x22x22x22x22x22x22x22x22 = 26,559,922,791,424"

Reader B used logic ...

"It doesn't matter what the first card is: as soon as it is drawn, there are only 21 left, and so on, until by the 10th card, there are only 13 options ... therefore the result must be ... 22x21x20x19x18x17x16x15x14x13 = 2,346,549,004,800"

I hasten to add that neither of them were great mathematicians, and both used a calculator for their final answer.

So, there are four possible solutions ...

Reader A is correct Reader B is corŕect Both have equally valid logic, despite the different values Neither is correct... because ?

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1 solution

Chris Kaye
Oct 20, 2017

A sounds more plausible but, of course, you have to eliminate any options which might contain 2 or more occurrences of the same card. I personally do actually find B to be less logical, however it 'must' be the more valid argument.

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