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Dice: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Common questions
Where were the oldest known dice found and when were they dated?
The oldest known dice were excavated from the ruins of the Burnt City in south-eastern Iran, dating back to between 2800 and 2500 BCE. These artifacts emerged from a backgammon-like game set, proving that the human desire to introduce chance into decision-making predates recorded history by millennia.
What are the differences between precision dice and non-precision dice?
Precision dice are generally larger, translucent, and have flush markings with sharp corners and edges, whereas non-precision dice are smaller, opaque, and feature recessed markings with rounded corners and edges. Non-precision dice are manufactured via the plastic injection molding process, often made of polymethyl methacrylate, with pips or numbers that are part of the mold.
When did the modern tradition of using sets of polyhedral dice start?
The modern tradition of using sets of polyhedral dice started around the end of the 1960s when non-cubical dice became popular among players of wargames. Five of the dice in a standard set are shaped like the Platonic solids, including the cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron.
How does the term snake eyes relate to the history of dice?
The term snake eyes, referring to a roll of one pip on each die, traces its use back to 1919 according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. The US term boxcars, also known as midnight, describes a roll of six pips on each die, a name derived from the visual resemblance of the pair of six pips to a pair of boxcars on a freight train.
What is cleromancy and how is it connected to dice?
Cleromancy is the practice of using dice for divination, a method employed by Tibetan Buddhists and likely by the Pythagoreans, who referred to such dice as the dice of the gods. Astrological dice are a specialized set of three 12-sided dice for divination, where the first die represents the planets, the Sun, the Moon, and the nodes of the Moon.
Dice
The oldest known dice were not found in a museum or a palace, but excavated from the ruins of the Burnt City, an archaeological site in south-eastern Iran, dating back to between 2800 and 2500 BCE. These artifacts emerged from a backgammon-like game set, proving that the human desire to introduce chance into decision-making predates recorded history by millennia. Before the invention of the cube, ancient cultures utilized the talus of hoofed animals, colloquially known as knucklebones, for fortune-telling and games of skill. This practice evolved into the flat two-sided throwsticks used in the Ancient Egyptian game of senet, which was played from before 3000 BCE until the 2nd century CE. These throwsticks indicated the number of squares a player could move, functioning as the earliest functional ancestors of the modern die. The transition from animal bones to manufactured objects marked a significant shift in how humanity approached randomness, moving from the organic irregularity of knucklebones to the engineered precision of bone dice found at Skara Brae in Scotland, which have been dated to 3100, 2400 BCE. Even more sophisticated were the terracotta dice unearthed from graves at Mohenjo-daro, an Indus Valley civilization settlement, which date to 2500, 1900 BCE. These ancient artifacts included at least one die whose opposite sides all added up to seven, a mathematical convention that persists in modern dice to this day.
Roman Gamblers And The Birth Of Polyhedra
Despite gambling being illegal in many contexts, the Roman populace was passionately devoted to the game of aleam ludere, or playing at dice. The Romans utilized two distinct sizes of dice to suit different needs: Tali, which were large dice inscribed with one, three, four, and six pips on four sides, and Tesserae, which were smaller dice with sides numbered from one to six. The history of the die extends far beyond the simple cube, with twenty-sided dice dating back to the 2nd century CE and even appearing in Ptolemaic Egypt as early as the 2nd century BCE. This ancient fascination with complex geometry suggests that the mathematical understanding required to create fair polyhedral dice was far more advanced than previously assumed. The transition from dice to playing cards occurred in China around the Tang dynasty, which spanned from 618 to 907 CE, coinciding with the technological shift from rolls of manuscripts to block-printed books. In Japan, dice were used to play a popular game called sugoroku, which existed in two forms: Ban-sugoroku, similar to backgammon and dating to the Heian period between 794 and 1185 CE, and e-sugoroku, a racing game. These historical developments demonstrate that the die was not merely a tool for gambling but a fundamental instrument of social interaction and entertainment across diverse civilizations.
The result of a die roll is determined by the laws of classical mechanics, yet the outcome is rendered random by uncertainty in minor factors such as tiny movements in the thrower's hand. This makes a die a crude form of hardware random number generator, where luck is often credited for the results, but physics dictates the final position. When rolling two dice, certain combinations have acquired slang names that have persisted for centuries; the term snake eyes, referring to a roll of one pip on each die, traces its use back to 1919 according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. The US term boxcars, also known as midnight, describes a roll of six pips on each die, a name derived from the visual resemblance of the pair of six pips to a pair of boxcars on a freight train. The word die itself comes from the Old French dé, which is derived from the Latin datum, meaning something which is given or played. While terms like ace, deuce, trey, cater, cinque, and sice are generally obsolete, they are still used by some professional gamblers to designate different sides of the dice. Ace originates from the Latin as, meaning a unit, while the others represent the numbers two through six in Old French. These linguistic artifacts reveal how deeply embedded dice are in the cultural fabric of gambling and gaming.
The Precision Of The Casino And The Plastic Mold
Precision dice, also known as perfect or gambling house dice, are used in casinos and are easily distinguished from non-precision dice by their visual and tactile differences. Precision dice are generally larger, translucent, and have flush markings with sharp corners and edges, whereas non-precision dice, often sold with social and board games, are smaller, opaque, and feature recessed markings with rounded corners and edges. Non-precision dice are manufactured via the plastic injection molding process, often made of polymethyl methacrylate, with pips or numbers that are part of the mold. The coloring for numbering is achieved by submerging the die entirely in paint, which is allowed to dry, and then polishing it via a tumble finishing process similar to rock polishing. This abrasive agent scrapes off all of the paint except for the indents of the numbering, and a finer abrasive is then used to polish the die, producing the smoother, rounded edges found on standard dice. In contrast, precision dice are generally made from bars of extruded cellulose acetate, sawed to the proper length to ensure that each face is as square as practical, generally with edges of specific dimensions. The pips are drilled deep and filled with opaque paint or epoxy which matches the density of cellulose, ensuring the dice remain balanced. To discourage cheating by dice substitution, each die carries a serial number and the casino's logo or name, and local regulations may affect the allowable dimensions and tolerances.
The Geometry Of The Gods And The Polyhedral Revolution
The modern tradition of using sets of polyhedral dice started around the end of the 1960s when non-cubical dice became popular among players of wargames, and since have been employed extensively in role-playing games and trading card games. Five of the dice in a standard set are shaped like the Platonic solids, whose faces are regular polygons, including the cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. The only other common non-cubical die is the 10-sided die, a pentagonal trapezohedron, whose faces are ten kites, each with two different edge lengths, three different angles, and two different kinds of vertices. Unlike other common dice, a four-sided tetrahedral die does not have a side that faces upward when it is at rest on a surface, so it must be read in a different way, either by the number around the vertex pointing up or the numbers around the base. The faces on a die are usually placed so opposite faces will add up to one more than the number of faces, a rule that is not possible with 4-sided dice and dice with an odd number of faces. Some dice, such as those with 10 sides, are usually numbered sequentially beginning with 0, in which case the opposite faces will add to one less than the number of faces. This geometric diversity allows games to closely approximate a variety of probability distributions, from uniform distributions to normal distributions.
The Hidden World Of Loaded Dice And Cheating
A loaded, weighted, cheat, or crooked die is one that has been tampered with so that it will land with a specific side facing upwards more often or less often than a fair die would. There are several methods for making loaded dice, including rounded faces, off-square faces, and weights, all designed to bias the outcome in favor of the user. Casinos and gambling halls frequently use transparent cellulose acetate dice, as tampering is easier to detect than with opaque dice. The transparency allows for immediate visual inspection of the internal structure, ensuring that no hidden weights or modifications are present. This focus on transparency and precision is a direct response to the history of cheating, which has driven the evolution of die manufacturing. The Electronic Frontier Foundation describes a method by which dice can be used to generate passphrases, known as Diceware, which is recommended for generating secure but memorable passphrases by repeatedly rolling five dice and picking the corresponding word from a pre-generated list. This modern application of dice highlights their continued relevance in the digital age, where randomness is a critical component of security and cryptography.
The Cultural Significance And The Future Of The Die
Dice can be used for divination and using dice for such a purpose is called cleromancy, a practice that has been employed by Tibetan Buddhists and likely by the Pythagoreans, who referred to such dice as the dice of the gods. The Pythagoreans sought to understand the universe through an understanding of geometry in polyhedra, suggesting that the die was once a tool for philosophical and spiritual exploration. Astrological dice are a specialized set of three 12-sided dice for divination, where the first die represents the planets, the Sun, the Moon, and the nodes of the Moon, the second die represents the 12 zodiac signs, and the third represents the 12 houses. A specialized icosahedron die provides the answers of the Magic 8 Ball, conventionally used to provide answers to yes-or-no questions. The fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons is largely credited with popularizing dice in such games, with some games using only one type, like Exalted which uses only ten-sided dice, while others use numerous types for different game purposes. The zocchihedron was invented as an alternative to percentile dice, a true d100 die, though no single die of 100 sides can be as consistently fair. These diverse applications demonstrate that the die is not merely a tool for games but a versatile instrument for divination, security, and philosophical inquiry.