53Punisher | 23 Jul 2015 11:07 p.m. PST |
Thought this was an interesting observation: link I've heard about the golf ball salt water test, but it never occured to me that you could do the same balance test with dice as well. Although this test is for d20s, which are obviously more rounded (might work with d12s and certainly with d30s), not sure how this would work on d4s, d8s, or other really odd-shapped dice, but it would be interesting to experiment with. :) |
Pedrobear | 23 Jul 2015 11:36 p.m. PST |
I did that the other day with my d20s in a shot glass. Totally worked. |
whitejamest | 24 Jul 2015 6:55 a.m. PST |
Interesting. This explains all of my lost games. Every one of them :) |
Rudysnelson | 24 Jul 2015 7:59 a.m. PST |
Back in the early 1980s, I worked with Lou Zocchi and conducted numerous test with him on dice. These were before the days of rounded edge dice, so certain characteristics were key. The process used in rounding the edges automatically increases the imbalance in numbers. So all rounded dice are tilted. The biggest factor in balance is dice density. Hence opaque tends to be more likely but not always more balanced that transparent dice. A major I balancing feature are air bubbles. Which you can see in clear dice. Another I balancing features are additives. This may be a different material which marbleized dice or adds swirls. Another items are flakes which settle in a die randomly and not equally dispersed. Hence automatically unbalanced. Lou also focused on hardness of dice which was an issue in the 1970s. |
wrgmr1 | 24 Jul 2015 9:10 a.m. PST |
I wonder what would show up with d6? |
warhawkwind | 24 Jul 2015 11:09 a.m. PST |
By engraving the numbers you automatically unbalance the die, because "20" will remove more material than "1". I believe thats why newer d6 have pips imprinted instead of engraved. This could be the start of a new space industry…dice molded in Zero Gravity. The only way to negate un-even dispersal of material.lol |
Moe Ronn | 24 Jul 2015 3:00 p.m. PST |
The problem is dice being available in different colors. If all dice were one color, you'd soon lose track of which ones were favorable. Problem solved. Please form an orderly line to thank me. |
Acharnement | 25 Jul 2015 4:30 a.m. PST |
Bloody hell! Just guessing but I think that many of my dice must be unbalanced. We can have both players use the same dice but even then the distribution of results is not going to be even. Thanks a lot for posting this! |
Winston Smith | 25 Jul 2015 6:06 a.m. PST |
This is not very high on my list of things to stay up late at night worrying about. |
53Punisher | 25 Jul 2015 7:27 a.m. PST |
You're welcome, Acharnement. :) |
Winston Smith | 25 Jul 2015 8:36 a.m. PST |
I think the test shows that the dice are unbalanced. That's it. If we tossed our D20 into vats of saline, perhaps that would be valid. But we ROLL them. On flat hard surfaces. The perceived unbalancedness might give a slight bias to some numbers. I use D20s in TSATF. I throw handfuls of them at a time. I can live with random bias. |
Ivan DBA | 27 Jul 2015 10:23 p.m. PST |
I agree with the OFM's sock puppet. |
Weasel | 27 Jul 2015 11:07 p.m. PST |
Sometimes it's cool to just learn something. |