These 60-sided dice never have to be rolled twice
A standard six-sided die has one simple shortcoming: You’ve got a 1 in 6 chance of getting the same number as your opponent when you’re rolling to go first in a game. Eric Harshbarger has a solution for that. More than a decade ago, Harshbarger, a senior lecturer at Auburn University’s College of Sciences and Mathematics, and a group of mathematicians and computer scientists embarked on a journey…
The Go First Dice are a set of five unique 60-sided dice designed by mathematician Eric Harshbarger and a team of researchers to ensure fair gameplay in competitive situations. Unlike traditional six-sided dice, these specialized dice are engineered to never result in a tie when rolled, and each player has an equal probability of rolling the highest number.
The project began over a decade ago when Harshbarger, a senior lecturer at Auburn University, collaborated with mathematician James Ernest to address the issue of players competing to go first in games. The team faced numerous challenges in their quest to create these no-tie dice, including determining the correct numbers to be placed on each die and ensuring the dice could be physically rolled.
After years of research and development, Canadian researcher and software engineer Paul Meyer finally found the solution in 2023, with the final design consisting of 60-sided dice. The resulting dice, each weighing over 100 pounds and approximately three-and-a-half feet in diameter, are represented in a sculpture at Auburn University's STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex.
The sculpture, crafted from various types of wood, serves as a tribute to the extensive effort and teamwork that went into creating these innovative dice.
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