Here’s a surprising pair of dice that you can make yourself!
Take on this experiment to test whether different dice modifications change your chances.
You will need
• Adhesive putty
• Marble or small stone
• Glue
• Scissors
• Marker
• Pen and paper
• A printout of the two dice pattern
Making the dice
There are two cross shapes on the template. Cut out one of these.
Fold along the edges of each square on the template. Make sure the dots are on the outside of the dice.
Glue the tab attached to the 4-dot square, and stick it to the edge of the 5-dot square.
Glue the tabs around the 6-dot square and stick it to the 2-, 4- and 5-dot squares to make an open box.
Stick a pea-sized lump of adhesive putty on the inside of the 1-dot square.
Glue the tabs around the 1-dot square and stick it down to make a cube.
Mark the dice with your marker so you know this one has putty in it.
Repeat steps 1–4 with the other cross shaped copy of the template.
Instead of putting adhesive putty on the 1 square, put a marble inside the second dice.
Glue down the 1-dot square to finish the second dice.
Mark the second dice so you know it has a marble in it.
The experiment
Roll each dice 20 times. Record the results of each roll and which dice you were using.
Look at your results – do your dice look fair?
Looking at your results, predict what the next 20 rolls of each dice will be.
Check your predictions by rolling each dice 20 more times and recording the results.
Recycle your dice once you are done with them.
What’s happening?
You probably found the putty dice is not rolling fair. The 1 side is heavier than the other sides and falls to on the bottom of the dice. The 6-dot side, opposite the 1, ends up on top more often than the other numbers. This is definitely a dodgy dice.
You may have noticed that other numbers were still rolled. Just because it is unfair does not mean the dice will always roll 6. The level of unfairness depends on the size and position of the blob – a tiny lump won’t change much, and a large enough lump will fill the entire dice!
The dice with the marble is probably reasonably fair. Since the marble can roll around it doesn’t favour any one side. You may have noticed some sides rolling more than others, but that’s normal. Fair dice doesn’t always roll each number the same amount all the time – that would require the dice to remember what it had rolled.
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