Rolling of the dice
Dice are one of the oldest and most fascinating games in the world, and now you can enjoy them from the comfort of your device. You can choose from a variety of magic dice, each with its own unique personality, and determine how many throws you want to make. Once you've completed the throws, we'll show you the results in a fascinating histogram that will reveal which dice faces have been kindest to you.
The roll of the dice is a combination of excitement, mystery and sheer randomness. It is the dice that will decipher your destiny, and you may discover new aspects of your relationship with luck. So pick up your favorite die, roll it, and begin the adventure!
Are you ready?
Choose your die
We offer you a choice of 6 dice: 5 are regular polyhedra (also called Platonic solids), the sixth is an irregular cube.
How many throws do you want to perform?
The computer is so fast at performing launches that you could ask it to perform anywhere from 100 up to 10,000,000!!! Make your choice.
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Rolling dice running...
Rolling of the dice completed!
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The results
From the histogram graph you can see, for each face of the die, how many times it came out. If the die is balanced, you should see a similar number of throws for each face. If the die is rigged, you might see a greater number of throws for some faces than for others.
As you can see there is really nothing magic in dice tossing. In the long run the outcome of a regular dice with 4, 6 or in general k equal faces - as the one the computer is tossing or better, simulating to toss - is very predictable!
If we - real person or computers - toss, or simulate the toss, a dice a given number of times, say 100, 100.000 or in general n times, each one of the k equally shaped faces will come up k/n times. So for example, if we toss a regular cubic dice with 6 squared equal faces 1.000.000 times, each face will show up approximately 6/1.000.000 times, that is 166.666,6666... nothing magic in this number even if somebody might try to convince you otherwise!
And what about the non regular dice with 6 quadrilateral but differently shaped faces? In this case it is harder to predict its outcome even in the long run. But we can toss it a large number of times and try to guess. If our time is limited, we can ask our friend the computer to toss the die many times. We can then observe the outcome and use it to guess - or better estimate - the probability of each face. How? Give it a try!
Historically probability theory was inspired by gamblers who were trying to make their fortune betting on the outcome of the toss of one or more dice. The zara is a game of chance that was played in the Middle Ages and is also mentioned by Dante Alighieri in the Divina Commedia. The game involved the bet on the outcome given by the sum of 3 dice. Can you guess which sum is more likely to come up? Is it more likely to get 9 or 10 as the sum of three fair cubic dice?
During the late sixteenth century, the astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei was asked by the Grand Duke of Tuscany this exact same question. The grand duke believed that the chance should be the same because "there are an equal number of partitions of the numbers 9 and 10." Can you find the flaw in the grand duke’s reasoning and answer the question posed to Galileo?
You can solve this puzzle by paper and pen... or by asking a computer. What would you do if you had a computer-friend?
If you play the horse race game in the exhibit Numb3ed by numb3ers that involves tossing two dice you might get an hint!
In mathematics and probability if often helps trying to solve an easier problem. In this case you might first think about the game with 2 dice, then move to 3 and finally generalize to an arbitrary number of dice! This is one of the real magic of mathematics, probability and science in general: the ability to generalize your reasoning from experience - or better experiments - to theories and theorems!