Industrious Dice

(mathenchant.wordpress.com)
89 points 082349872349872 | 8 comments | | HN request time: 0.626s | source | bottom
1. oatsandsugar ◴[] No.41871895[source]
This is glorious. What a world we live in.

How can we make a die that functions as a d6, but has "less pips". An elegant dodecahedron as the solution. Less pips but more sides. Not an economic solution, but I love that these problems are being solved.

2. pavel_lishin ◴[] No.41872553[source]
This would be a fun video to send to your DM before showing up with these dice.
replies(1): >>41872786 #
3. hinkley ◴[] No.41872783[source]
That is the nerdiest thing I’ve ever seen and it’s appropriate that he was wearing a top hat while presenting it.

However, the point of dice is typically not so you can count the numbers but so others can count them. People sitting at a table with you cannot see “up”, they can only see from an angle and so these dice while mathematically cool are completely impractical. Great example of white tower design.

replies(1): >>41875819 #
4. hinkley ◴[] No.41872786[source]
Oh no a boulder fell on your character. 200 points of crush damage.
5. robinhouston ◴[] No.41874249[source]
I'm (pleasantly) surprised to see this on the front page of HN!

If anyone really wants to nerd out on the rhombic triacontahedral die, my proof of uniqueness is at https://s3.boskent.com/rhombic-triacontahedron-die/uniquenes...

I first discovered the result computationally, using a program written in https://sentient-lang.org/, before finding the ‘human’ proof described in that PDF.

6. penteract ◴[] No.41874965[source]
Such a waste of faces :). Give a tetrahedron's faces 0,1,2, and 4 pips and throw it into a v-shaped groove so that it lands on an edge. (This is also a solution to numbering the corners of a cube).
7. mkl ◴[] No.41875819[source]
The article points this problem out. It's recreational mathematics, not intended to be practical.