Answer & explanation
Standard 52 Card Bicycle Deck
The official answer, with Fermi’s reasoning step by step.
Answer & explanation
Official answer
1,490
decks
How to estimate it
Fermi’s official “Napkin math”
An NBA court is 94 by 50 feet, so call it 4,700 square feet. How many cards cover a square foot? A card is 2.5 by 3.5 inches, so about four across and three and a half down. Call it 16. A deck holds 52.
- Court area
- ~4,700 ft²
- Cards per square foot
- × 16
- Cards needed
- ~75,000
- ÷ 52 per deck
- ≈ 1,450
An NBA court is about 29 by 15 metres, so roughly 440 square metres. How many cards cover a square metre? A card is about 6 by 9 centimetres, a bit over 50 square centimetres, so call it 180. A deck holds 52.
- Court area
- ~440 m²
- Cards per square metre
- × 180
- Cards needed
- ~79,000
- ÷ 52 per deck
- ≈ 1,520
Rounded assumptions may give a slightly different estimate. The official answer above is the game’s reference value.
Source calculation & reference
- NBA court area
- 94 × 50 = 4,700 ft²
- Convert to in²
- × 144 = 676,800 in²
- Card area
- 2.5 × 3.5 = 8.75 in²
- Cards needed
- ≈ 77,300
- ÷ 52 per deck
- ≈ 1,490
Reference cited by Fermi: NBA court spec · poker card dimensions
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