Not much chance
Sir: Andrew Robson's claim (Bridge, 17 August) may as well be as true as that of D.K.D. Foster (Letters, 31 August), for both are impossible to prove.
If Foster's figures are accepted, which assume an unlikely identical one-dimen- sional symmetry of grains, then 40 people sitting round his sand pile will take at least a thousand years to count the grains physi- cally. That allows for two seconds a grain and makes no provision for interruptions of any sort. A sudden death would necessitate a partial recount!
Odds are a strange form of calculation, bearing only a remote relationship to chance. If I should live for 40,000 years I may never expect a 13-spade hand. Yet together with all other players sitting in the same position and playing the same dupli- cated hand at any bridge club, chance may intervene to deal them one next week. It is fondly to be hoped that their left-hand opponent doesn't spoil it by overcalling Seven No Trumps. Chance would be a fine thing!
Tony Knight
2 West Wing Lower Lariggan House, Lariggan Crescent, Penzance, Cornwall
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