The Math of a Deck of Cards

There are many games of near infinite combinations that can be played with a simple deck of 52 cards. To learn about some of these fun math facts, read Nio's post on Medium. In the meantime, here are few I'd like to share with you today from the article:

• The colours, Red and Black represent Day and Night respectively.
• There are 4 Suits (Hearts, Spades, Clubs and Diamonds) in a full pack of playing cards. There are 4 Seasons in a year.
• The 12 Court cards (4 Kings, 4 Queens, 4 Jacks) represent the 12 Months in a year.
• The 13 Values (Ace through to King) in each suit equate to the 13 Lunar cycles in a year.
• There are 52 cards in a full pack of playing cards (excluding jokers) – There are 52 weeks in a year.
• Finally, the sum of the values of the 52 cards (Ace = 1, King = 13, Queen = 12, Jack = 11) and 1 Joker is 365. The same as the amount of days per calendar year. Add another Joker, and the total value is 366, representing a leap year.

It's so important to keep your brain sharp over the summer and while we're in quarantine, so here some rules for how to play my favorite card games!

How to play Crazy 8s

How to play War

How to play Garbage/Trash

Follow our Number Sense blog for more math activities, or find a Mathnasium tutor near you for additional help and information.