INTRODUCTION

Dice is a singular die, small objects used as implements for gambling and the
playing of social games. The most common form of die is the cube, with each
side marked with from one to six small dots. The spots are arranged in
conventional patterns and placed so that spots on opposite sides always add
up to seven: one and six, two and five, three and four. There are, however,
many dice with differing arrangements of spots or other face designs, such
as poker dice and crown and anchor dice, and many other shapes of dice with
4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, and 20 or more sides. Dice are generally used to
generate a random outcome in which the physical design and quantity of the
dice thrown determine the mathematical probabilities.

In most games played with dice, the dice are thrown (rolled, flipped, shot,
tossed, or cast), from the hand or from a receptacle called a dice cup, in such
a way that they will fall at random. The symbols that face up when the dice
come to rest are the relevant ones, and their combination decides, according
to the rules of the game being played, whether the thrower (often called the
shooter) wins, loses, scores points, continues to throw, or loses possession of
the dice to another shooter. Dice have also been used for at least 5,000 years
in connection with board games, primarily for the movement of playing pieces.

HISTORY

The oldest physical dice are found in a dig site in Turkey dating back to early
Bronze Age, these evidence indicated that dice games have been well
established and popular in 3rd Millennium BCE.

During the Roman empire dice is a popular gambling tool, and thus many
Roman laws are related to dice gambling. These dice are made of bone, ivory,
bronze, agate, rock crystal, jet, onyx, alabaster, marble, amber, and porcelain
among other materials. The oldest 20-sided dice was found in Roman period
Egypt, and it was made out of Serpentine.

It was not until the 16th century that dice games were subjected to
mathematical analysis—by Italians Girolamo Cardano and Galileo, among
others—and the concepts of randomness and probability were conceived.
Until then the prevalent attitude had been that dice and similar objects fell the
way they did because of the indirect action of gods or supernatural forces.
CONSTRUCTION
Almost all modern dice are made of a cellulose or other plastic material. There
are two kinds: perfect, or casino, dice with sharp edges and corners,
commonly made by hand and true to a tolerance of 0.0001 inch and used
mostly in gambling casinos to play craps or other gambling games, and round-
cornered, or imperfect, dice, which are machine-made and are generally used
to play social and board games.

ORIGIN

Dice are used in many traditional board games, and is one of the main
aspects of modern game design. The earliest evidence of dice is archaeology
portrayal of a game Senet in the 4th millennium BCE which required dice.
These dice were made of bones and branches that had two to four marked
sides (instead of six).

Manufacturing
Non-precision dice are manufactured via the plastic injection molding process.
The pips or numbers on the die are a part of the mold. The coloring for
numbering is achieved by submerging the die entirely in paint, which is
allowed to dry. The die is then polished via a tumble finishing process similar
to rock polishing.

Precision casino dice may have a polished or sand finish, making them
transparent or translucent respectively. Casino dice have their pips drilled,
then filled flush with a paint of the same density as the material used for the
dice, such that the center of gravity of the dice is as close to the geometric
center as possible.

ARRANGEMENT
Common dice are small cubes most commonly 1.6 cm (0.63 in) across, whose
faces are numbered from one to six, usually by patterns of round dots called
pips.
Opposite sides of a dice is traditionally add up to seven, implying that the 1, 2
and 3 faces share a vertex. The faces of a die may be placed clockwise or
counterclockwise about this vertex. If the 1, 2 and 3 faces run
counterclockwise, the die is called "right-handed", and if those faces run
clockwise, the die is called "left-handed". Western dice are normally right-
handed, and Chinese dice are normally left-handed.
The pips on dice are arranged in specific patterns. Asian style dice bear
similar patterns to Western ones, but the pips are closer to the center of the
face; in addition, the pips are differently sized on Asian style dice, and the pips
are colored red on the 1 and 4 sides.

TYPES OF DICE
Non-numeric
The faces of most dice are labelled using sequences of whole numbers,
usually starting at one, expressed with either pips or digits. However, there are
some applications that require results other than numbers. Examples include
letters for Boggle, directions for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Fudge dice,
playing card symbols for poker dice, and instructions for sexual acts using sex
dice.

Spherical dice
A die can be constructed in the shape of a sphere, with the addition of an
internal cavity in the shape of the dual polyhedron of the desired die shape
and an internal weight. The weight will settle in one of the points of the internal
cavity, causing it to settle with one of the numbers uppermost. For instance, a
sphere with an octahedral cavity and a small internal weight will settle with
one of the 6 points of the cavity held downwards by the weight.
Poker dice
Poker dice are dice which, instead of having number pips, have
representations of playing cards upon them. Poker dice have six sides, one
each of an Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, and 9, and are used to form a poker
hand.

Boggle Dice
A set of dices in a covered tray of 16 cubic dice, each with a different letter
printed on each of its sides. The dice settle into a 4×4 tray so that only the top
letter of each cube is visible. After they have settled into the grid, a three-
minute sand timer is started and all players simultaneously begin the main
phase of play.
SHAPES OF DICES
Normally, the faces on a die will be placed so opposite faces will add up to
one more than the number of faces (this is not possible with 4-sided dice and
dice with an odd-number of faces). Some dice, such as those with 10 sides,
are usually numbered sequentially beginning with 0, in which case the
opposite faces will add to one less than the number of faces.

 TRIANGULAR PRISM (3 SIDES)

This is a prism that is thin enough to land either on its "edge" or "face".
When landing on an edge, the result is displayed by digits (2–4) close to
the prism's top edge. The triangular faces are labeled with the digits 1
and 5.

 TETRAHEDRON (4 SIDES)
Each face has three numbers, arranged such that the upright number,
placed either near the vertex or near the opposite edge, is the same on
all three visible faces. The upright numbers represent the value of the
roll. This die does not roll well and thus it is usually thrown into the air
instead.

 PENTAGONAL PRISM (5 SIDES)

Similar in constitution to the 5-sided die. Seven-sided dice are used in
a seven-player variant of backgammon. Seven-sided dice are described
in the 13th century Libro de los juegos as having been invented
by Alfonso X in order to speed up play in chess variants.

 CUBE (6 SIDES)
A common die. The sum of the numbers on opposite faces is seven.

 OCTAHEDRON (8 SIDES)
Each face is triangular and the die resembles two square
pyramids attached base-to-base. Usually, the sum of the opposite faces
is 9.

 DODECAHEDRON (12 SIDES)

Each face is a regular pentagon. The sum of the numbers on opposite
faces is usually 13.

 ICOSAHEDRON (20 SIDES)

Faces are equilateral triangles. Icosahedrons have been found dating to
Roman/Ptolemaic times, but it is not known if they were used as gaming
dice. Modern dice with 20 sides are sometimes numbered 0–9 twice as
an alternative to 10-sided dice. The sum of the numbers on opposite
faces is 21 if numbered 1–20.
Applications
The Many Uses of Dice in Games
We love to chuck them on the table, sometimes so hard that half of them roll
off of it and onto the floor, making the cat sit up and take notice.But
sometimes, dice aren’t just for rolling. Sometimes games use them in other
innovative ways.

1. Dice is used in the game of sargada where it is placed in such specific

ways on your window tableau and the colours represent the glass in the
window.

2. In the game of Biblios a person is given five dice of the same colour as
the five colours of cards (representing the book types) you can have in your
hand. These dice are not meant to be rolled. They are just there to keep
track of how much each colour is worth at the end of the game.

3. Then there are Dice Placement games, which are basically Worker
Placement games where the dice can be used as workers. A great
example of that is Alien Frontiers. In this game, you are rolling dice,
but you are using those dice as ships to go to various areas of the planet
and do something based on what numbers you rolled.

4. Another game of Quantum, where each number on a die represents a

type of ship with variable abilities. Person rolls them to see what type of
ship he gets and then that ship has abilities based on what number it is.

5. There is, of course, the classic Troyes where you are rolling dice at the
beginning of your turn, but then you have to use those dice to do various
things around the city of Troyes.

6. Some games use only one type, like Exalted which uses only ten-sided
dice.

7. Many board games use dice to randomize how far pieces move or to
settle conflicts. Typically, this has meant that rolling higher numbers is
better.
STORY OF DICE