Rolling them bones

On GoogleFacePlusBook, Jeff [1] linked to an article about non-transitive dice [2]—three dice where, on average (meaning—many rolls) die A will win over die B, die B will win over die C, but die C will win over die A (kind of like rock-paper-scissors [3]). Even weirder, if you double the dice, two A's against two B's against two C's, the order reverses! (And the accompanying video shows a series of five dice with an even weirder dual-non-transitive ordering).

This page remineded me of a set of “go-first-dice [4]”—a set of twelve sided dice where, say, four people each have a ¼ chance of rolling the highest number, a ¼ chance of rolling the second highest number, a ¼ chance of rolling the third highest number and a ¼ chance of rolling the lowest number. In this case, the dice form a strict ordering (there is no chance of a tie).

[1] http://spinthecat.blogspot.com/

[2] http://boingboing.net/2013/03/15/weird-probabilities-of-non-tra.html

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-paper-scissors

[4] http://www.ericharshbarger.org/dice/#gofirst_4d12

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