why are there so many numbers on a credit card ?

giving credit where credit is due

"visa card # please . . ."

#1234 - 5678 - 2345 - 3456

16 digits = quadtrillion

million = 1,000,000

billion = 1,000,000,000

trillion = 1,000,000,000,000

quadtrillion = 1,000,000,000,000,000


suppose 50,000,000 visa cards exist

that means there is only this chance:


50,000,000
1,000,000,000,000,000

of guessing a number that exists.


this is the same as ---

5 out of 100,000,000

or 1 chance in 20,000,000 of fraud



10 / 6f / 95