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Institute of Mathematics and its Applications East Midlands Branch, University of Nottingham (30/01/2020).

Abstract:
A group of Whist players are dealt a complete suit each, with odds reported at 2,235,197,406,895,366,368,301,559,999 to one. A crisp company claims there are 318,000 possible combinations of their flavours. A poster in a pizza restaurant offers 33,554,431 choices at the salad bar. How are such claims calculated and are they accurate? This talk will introduce some techniques from combinatorics (the maths of counting) and confirm or correct some of the claims made.