Sicherman dice

Sicherman dice (pronounced /ˈsɪkərmən/) are the only pair of 6-sided dice that are not normal dice, bear only positive integers, and have the same probability distribution for the sum as normal dice.

The faces on the dice are numbered 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4 and 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8.

Mathematics

Crazy dice is a standard mathematical problem or puzzle in elementary combinatorics, involving a re-labeling the faces of a pair of six-sided dice to reproduce the same frequency of sums as the standard labeling.

It is a standard exercise in elementary combinatorics to calculate the number of ways of rolling any given value with a pair of fair six-sided dice (by taking the sum of the two rolls). The table shows the number of such ways of rolling a given value n:

n	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
# of ways	1	2	3	4	5	6	5	4	3	2	1

A question arises whether there are other ways of re-labeling the faces of the dice with positive integers that generate these sums with the same frequencies. The surprising answer to this question is that there does indeed exist such a way. These are the Sicherman dice.

The table below lists all possible totals of dice rolls with standard dice and Sicherman dice. One Sicherman die is coloured for clarity: 1–2–2–3–3–4, and the other is all black, 1–3–4–5–6–8.

	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Standard dice	1+1	1+2 2+1	1+3 2+2 3+1	1+4 2+3 3+2 4+1	1+5 2+4 3+3 4+2 5+1	1+6 2+5 3+4 4+3 5+2 6+1	2+6 3+5 4+4 5+3 6+2	3+6 4+5 5+4 6+3	4+6 5+5 6+4	5+6 6+5	6+6
Sicherman dice	1+1	2+1 2+1	3+1 3+1 1+3	1+4 2+3 2+3 4+1	1+5 2+4 2+4 3+3 3+3	1+6 2+5 2+5 3+4 3+4 4+3	2+6 2+6 3+5 3+5 4+4	1+8 3+6 3+6 4+5	2+8 2+8 4+6	3+8 3+8	4+8

History

These dice were discovered by Colonel George Sicherman, of Buffalo, New York and were originally reported by Martin Gardner in a 1978 article in Scientific American.

The numbers can be arranged so that all pairs of numbers on opposing sides sum to equal numbers, 5 for the first and 9 for the second.

Later, in a letter to Sicherman, Gardner mentioned that a magician he knew had anticipated Sicherman's discovery. For generalizations of the Sicherman dice to more than two dice and noncubical dice, see Broline (1979), Gallian and Rusin (1979), Brunson and Swift (1997/1998), and Fowler and Swift (1999).

Mathematical justification

Let a canonical n-sided die be an n-hedron whose faces are marked with the integers [1,n] such that the probability of throwing each number is 1/n. Consider the canonical cubical (six-sided) die. The generating function for the throws of such a die is x + x² + x³ + x⁴ + x⁵ + x⁶. The product of this polynomial with itself yields the generating function for the throws of a pair of dice: x² + 2x³ + 3x⁴ + 4x⁵ + 5x⁶ + 6x⁷ + 5x⁸ + 4x⁹ + 3x¹⁰ + 2x¹¹ + x¹². From the theory of cyclotomic polynomials, we know that

$x^n - 1 = \prod_{d\,\mid\,n}^n \Phi_d(x).\;$

where d ranges over the divisors of n and $\Phi_d(x)\,$ is the d-th cyclotomic polynomial. We note also that

$\frac{x^n -1}{x-1} = \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} x^i = 1 + x + \cdots + x^{n-1}$.

We therefore derive the generating function of a single n-sided canonical die as being

$x + x^2 + \cdots + x^n = \frac{x}{x-1} \prod_{d\,\mid\,n}^n \Phi_d(x)$

$\Phi_1(x) = x - 1\,$ and is canceled. Thus the factorization of the generating function of a six-sided canonical die is

$x\,\Phi_2(x)\,\Phi_3(x)\,\Phi_6(x) = x\;(x+1)\;(x^2 + x + 1)\;(x^2 - x +1)$

The generating function for the throws of two dice is the product of two copies of each of these factors. How can we partition them to form two legal dice whose spots are not arranged traditionally? Here legal means that the coefficients are non-negative and sum to six, so that each die has six sides and every face has at least one spot. Only one such partition exists:

$x\;(x + 1)\;(x^2 + x + 1) = x + 2x^2 + 2x^3 + x^4$

and

$x\;(x + 1)\;(x^2 + x + 1)\;(x^2 - x + 1)^2 = x + x^3 + x^4 + x^5 + x^6 + x^8$

This gives us the distribution of spots on the faces of a pair of Sicherman dice as being {1,2,2,3,3,4} and {1,3,4,5,6,8}, as above.

This technique can be extended for dice with an arbitrary number of sides.

References

• Broline, D. (1979), "Renumbering of the faces of dice", Mathematics Magazine (Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 52, No. 5) 52 (5): 312–315, doi:10.2307/2689786, JSTOR 2689786 

• Brunson, B. W.; Swift, Randall J. (1997/8), "Equally likely sums", Mathematical Spectrum 30 (2): 34–36 

• Fowler, Brian C.; Swift, Randall J. (1999), "Relabeling dice", College Mathematics Journal (The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3) 30 (3): 204–208, doi:10.2307/2687599, JSTOR 2687599 

• Gallian, J. A.; Rusin, D. J. (1979), "Cyclotomic polynomials and nonstandard dice", Discrete Mathematics 27 (3): 245–259, doi:10.1016/0012-365X(79)90161-4, MR= 0541471 doi = 0541471, 10.1016/0012-365X(79)90161-4 

• Gardner, Martin (1978), "Mathematical Games", Scientific American 238 (2): 19–32, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0278-19 

External links

• Grand Illusion's Informational Page
• Mathworld's Information Page

This article incorporates material from Crazy dice on PlanetMath, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.