During a dinner conversation at a gaming convention back in 2012, a board game creator posed a challenge to Eric Harshbarger: create a set of dice that can definitively decide the starting player without any chance of a tie.
The objective was clear: streamline the initial turn-taking process and kickstart the gameplay swiftly.
“The aim was to expedite the commencement of the board game so that players can engage without delay,” shared Harshbarger in an interview with As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
As a mathematician and senior lecturer at Auburn University in Alabama, Harshbarger found this problem intriguing and well-suited to his expertise.
“It was a challenging query that enticed me as a mathematician,” he added.
Conceptually, Harshbarger conceptualized a set of dice where each player could roll one die, ensuring an equal chance of winning while avoiding any ties among players.
However, translating this theoretical solution into functional dice proved to be a significant challenge.
After almost 15 years of relentless effort, Harshbarger and his team successfully created a set of dice called the Go First Dice for five players, enabling a fair determination of the starting player with a guaranteed winner from a single roll.
A Persistent Challenge
Over time, Harshbarger became the custodian of this problem, overseeing a collaborative effort involving approximately 20 computer scientists and mathematicians worldwide.
The team swiftly devised a set of four 12-sided dice that allowed two, three, or four players to roll a die each and achieve a statistically fair outcome, ensuring a clear winner every time.
“For two players, we resolved it swiftly, for three players within a day or two, and for four players within two to three weeks or possibly a month,” Harshbarger recalled.
However, when it came to five players, the challenge intensified.
Harshbarger remained confident in the mathematical feasibility of the dice.
The complexity lied in transforming the mathematical solution into a physical die structure that could be manufactured and rolled.
“I knew a solution might involve an impractical number of sides, such as 1,440 per die, which was unachievable,” he explained.
Hence, the team delved into various theories to reduce the number of sides gradually, ultimately finding a practical solution proposed by a researcher in Australia: a set of five 120-sided dice.
Following this breakthrough, the project gained traction, attracting more researchers. Within six months, a Canadian software engineer named Paul Meyer joined the endeavor.
Breakthrough from Canada
Meyer contacted Harshbarger, seeking insights from previous findings.
Three months later, Meyer excitedly informed Harshbarger about his breakthrough using five 60-sided dice.
Throughout the project, numerous individuals claimed to