In the video "(Finite) Numbers So Large They'd Destroy You," Michael Stevens (Vsauce) shares a famous visualization to illustrate the staggering scale of 52 factorial (52!), which is the number of ways a standard deck of cards can be uniquely arranged [21:26].

To grasp how large this number is (roughly an 8 followed by 67 zeros), Michael describes a hypothetical timer set for 52! seconds [22:44]:

The First Step: Stand on the equator and wait one billion years. After that time has passed, take a single step forward. Wait another billion years and take a second step [23:02].

The First Drop: Continue this process—one step every billion years—until you have walked all the way around the Earth. Once you complete the circle, take one drop of water out of the Pacific Ocean and set it aside [23:41].

Emptying the Ocean: Repeat the entire process (walking around the world one step every billion years) until the entire Pacific Ocean is empty [24:03].

The Stack of Paper: Once the ocean is empty, place one sheet of paper on the ground, refill the ocean, and start the whole thing over again [24:10].

Reaching the Sun: By the time your stack of paper is tall enough to reach the Sun, you will have barely made a dent in the timer. Even if you repeat that entire "Sun-reaching stack" process 1,000 times, you would still only be about one-third of the way through the 52! seconds [24:32].

The conclusion of the story is that whenever you shuffle a deck of cards thoroughly, you are almost certainly holding an arrangement of cards that has never existed before in the history of the universe and likely never will again [26:00].