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These dice appear to be exactly the same as any other dice, except that they contain a tiny, spring-loaded, telescopic flagpole that occasionally springs out from the centre of the die, sporting a flag that, in bright friendly letters bears the message, "SEVEN!"
All dice shapes that are fair
http://www.mathpuzzle.com/Fairdice.htm
[Ling, Oct 06 2005]
More about dice
http://www.mcs.surr...phi3DGeom.html#dice
See short cut "Dice shapes", and further shortcut to footnote [Ling, Oct 06 2005]
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Now that *would* get you noticed in Vegas. |
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hah! does the flagpole always come out of the same side? if yes, which side is that? |
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And here I am, as promised [zen_tom]. Would it do it every seventh time? Or on the average every seven times? Or by remote control? |
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ha, excellent [norm] - I suppose there would have to be a 1/7 chance that it would pop out, on average. |
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occasionally [po], because if it came out every time, it would be a crappy kind of die (i.e. you'd always be rolling sevens) |
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I've not decided whether it should come out of whichever side is uppermost at the time, or stick to coming out of the 'one', but it could work either way. |
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By way of further explanation, it would have a mechanism (possibly like one of those 'automatic' watch winding movements) that allowed it to know when it had just been 'thrown' and which may or may not trigger the release after the die has come to a rest. The timing of it would be something like: shake, roll...boing! or shake, roll... ... nada. |
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Could just have a little ball bearing in a chamber with seven exits. If the ball bearing comes to rest in the exit with a trigger, then blam! the flag comes out. |
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Simple randomizing mechanism. |
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I think the die should disintegrate, revealing a small round sphere with the embossed 7. You would only roll 7 once. |
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zen_tom, it couldn't come out of the 'one' and be 1/7 chance at the same time. |
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What about an LCD dice that displayed a random number on the top face after it was rolled? Then it could also show 8, 9, 10 as required. |
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Oh yes it could Ling, it just wouldn't necessarily be vertical, or (and this could be controversial) it could use some weighting mechanism so that immediately after deployment, the die always ends up with the flag in the air, weeble style. |
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Ah, I assumed that the flag would come out from the top face. |
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Yeah, that would be best, but I can't think of a suitable way of doing that without overcomplicating(!) the design... |
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I hope we can find a way to ensure the flagpoles do not deploy when the dice are shaken in one's hand. It sounds like it would be painful to have your palm impaled followed by a flag embedding itself under your skin, even with bright friendly letters bearing the message, "SEVEN!". Ouch! |
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Or how about when you blow on the dice for luck at the precise instant the flag unfurls? "Is that a new kind of lip piercing or have you been using Extra-Sided Dice?" |
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