Dice

I was playing a board game (Settlers of Catan if you're interested) on Friday morning and I was in need of three consecutive rolls of the die to land with one dot pointed to the ceiling. They were long odds for sure. To do it once gives me the long odds of 6/1; to do it twice lengthens the odds to 36/1 and to do it thrice, well, the odds lurch to 216/1, yet I celebrated as a die roll of one was followed by a die roll of one and was then followed by a die roll of one. I proclaimed the skill of my dice-wielding hands while my Maths teacher opponent (Nathan Wriglesworth) almost exploded at the mathematical improbability of my success.

The precise origins of the little fellers who granted me such favour is unknown as many cultures independently created their own dice thousands of years ago and used them for a variety of purposes: dividing inheritances, choosing rulers and as a method of prediction. In ancient Roman religion it was believed that Zeus's daughter Fortuna was the controller of the dice - if that were the case, she clearly liked the way I did my hair on Friday morning.

The modern dice is a development from the use of fruit stones, sea shells and sheep ankle bones (the above picture is of children playing a game with sheep ankle bones) as providers of random progression in a game. Whilst I have often clutched dice in my sweaty paws (actually I generally demand that we use a plastic cup as a shaking implement), not everyone is a fan with some game-players scorning the random element dice bring to game, voicing the old English proverb: "The best throw of the dice is to throw them away", but I am a fan of cuboid chaps, especially when they contrive to bring me good fortune.