Dyadic Expansions

It can be difficult to picture In and Out shuffles when dealing with decks of large size. However, this can become significantly easier when dealing with a deck of N = 2k cards if we think of each of the cards in terms of their dyadic expansions. Consider a deck of N = 8 cards. We write the first digit of the dyadic (binary) expansion of each card so that cards 0 through 3 are assigned a zero and cards 4 through 7 are assigned a one. For the second digit, we assign cards 0, 1, 4, and 5 a zero, and cards 2, 3, 6, and 7 a one. The third digit is assigned where the even numbered cards each receive a zero and the odd numbered cards each receive a one. Thus, card in spot zero has a dyadic expansion of 000, and the card in spot five has a dyadic expansion of 101.

To express the results of an Out shuffle of a card in terms of its dyadic expansion, shift each digit one spot to the left, circling the first digit around to the last spot, where

			O[000] = [000] and O[101] = [011].
For an In shuffle, circle the digits around as with the Out shuffle, but then switch the last digit so that if it is a 1 it becomes a 0, and if it is a 0 it becomes a 1, i.e.,
	 		I[000] = [001] and I[101] = [010].




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