Nothing ever happens twice, yet the rhythm of life is defined by repetition. Where there are spirals we see circles.

But imagine if life was reduced to just 52 different parts — not only would limitless possibility seem to instantly vanish; one would expect there to be lots of repetition.

It turns out, however, that this is not the case, because this is how many different ways 52 different units can be rearranged:

80,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Here’s the math: