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584 points robinhouston | 5 comments | | HN request time: 1.103s | source
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ChuckMcM ◴[] No.44381861[source]
Worst D-4 ever! But more seriously, I wonder how closely you could get to an non-uniform mass polyhedra which had 'knife edge' type balance. Which is to say;

1) Construct a polyhedra with uneven weight distribution which is stable on exactly two faces.

2) Make one of those faces much more stable than the other, so if it is on the limited stability face and disturbed, it will switch to the high stability face.

A structure like that would be useful as a tamper detector.

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ortusdux ◴[] No.44382291[source]
You jest, but I knew a DND player with a dice addicting that loved showing off his D-1 Mobius strip dice - https://www.awesomedice.com/products/awd101?variant=45578687...

For some reason he did not like my suggestion that he get a #1 billard ball.

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gerdesj ◴[] No.44382580[source]
Love it - any sphere will do.

A ping pong ball would be great - the DM/GM could throw it at a player for effect without braining them!

(billiard)

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cubefox ◴[] No.44383700[source]
A sphere is bad, it rolls away. The shape from the article would be better, but it is too hard to manufacture. And weighting is cheating anyway. The best option for a D1 is probably the gömböc, which is mentioned in the article.
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shalmanese ◴[] No.44383949[source]
Technically, a gomboc is a D1.00…001.
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1. cubefox ◴[] No.44384194[source]
Any normal die could also land on an edge.
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2. layer8 ◴[] No.44385614[source]
It’s infinitely unlikely to do so, a set of measure zero.
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3. cubefox ◴[] No.44385683[source]
Just as with the gömböc. Though the latter balances on only one unstable axis while a D6 die does so on 20 (12 edges and 8 vertices).
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4. Y_Y ◴[] No.44387094{3}[source]
Vertices aren't axes! They have the wrong dimensionality.
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5. cubefox ◴[] No.44388961{4}[source]
Let's instead call the balance things in question "balance things".