is it true that once a deck of cards is shuffled out of order, no amount of additional shuffling will return it to original order?

Question

This is what Sir Arthur Eddington said, but it seems to me that the order in a deck of cards is purely imaginary.  There is nothing natural about it.  So its not a matter of reintroducing order, rather a return to a pattern which to nature would seem as random as anything else.  Couldnt that be possible, given enough time?  Like monkeys creating shakespeare by random typing.

Answer 1

I don't exactly recall but I believe it was called the "Law of Infinite Probability" which basically states that there is always a chance that something will occur. An example is like flipping a coin. Whenever you flip the coin it lands heads or tails. As you continue to flip and by chance you keep getting heads, the probability that your next flip will be tails is higher. However you must remember that in an independent event the chance to flip heads or tails is still 50/50. The same idea is with shuffled cards. The chance that you can reshuffle the cards back into the same order is low, but given a constant circumstance you will be able to shuffle the cards back into the same order. If you are still confused here is a reddit link and I feel that the first explanation does a great job. https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2ecq3c/what_is_the_law_of_infinite_probability/