Testing for fair dice
Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:42 pm
While OVA isn't a high-stakes casino game, most players want fair dice.
However, how do you know a die is fair?
Simple; you roll it enough times and see if you get each number roughly equally. But it's still random, so some numbers will turn up more than others.
That's where this Excel file, courtesy of the Giant Battling Robots blog, comes in handy.
Roll your die at least 30 times (do more rolls for more accurate results), then plug the results into the bright green cells on the table's left side. Do not mess with any other part of the spreadsheet. Afterward, look near the bottom of the chart for the "p-value." You will see a message next to it telling you if the die is fair or not.
Even better, the spreadsheet works for dice all the way up to d20.
(If you want to know why rolling a die dozens of times gives you every side in roughly equal measure, look up the Law of Large Numbers. It's quite fascinating.)
However, how do you know a die is fair?
Simple; you roll it enough times and see if you get each number roughly equally. But it's still random, so some numbers will turn up more than others.
That's where this Excel file, courtesy of the Giant Battling Robots blog, comes in handy.
Roll your die at least 30 times (do more rolls for more accurate results), then plug the results into the bright green cells on the table's left side. Do not mess with any other part of the spreadsheet. Afterward, look near the bottom of the chart for the "p-value." You will see a message next to it telling you if the die is fair or not.
Even better, the spreadsheet works for dice all the way up to d20.
(If you want to know why rolling a die dozens of times gives you every side in roughly equal measure, look up the Law of Large Numbers. It's quite fascinating.)
