Five 60-Sided Dice Offer a Tie-Free Way to Choose Who Goes First

Choosing who goes first usually requires a coin, a single die or a contest that can end in a draw. A set of five specially designed 60-sided dice aims to remove that possibility entirely. Mathematician Eric Harshbarger of Auburn University created the dice as a fair way for up to five players to determine who starts. According to reporting by Boing Boing, the dice are arranged so that every player has an equal chance of winning the opening roll, while the design prevents ties. The solution emerged from a much longer search. Researchers initially found that the dice did not necessarily need to have identical numbers of sides, and they identified several possible arrangements for five players. Many of those designs, however, were too complicated to manufacture practically. Another solution used five matching 120-sided dice. That design worked, and some sets were produced from aluminum. The researchers continued looking for a simpler option before Canadian researcher Paul Meyer contacted Harshbarger around 2023 with a five-die, 60-sided design. The 60-sided version met the project’s key requirements: it used identical dice, provided a fair result and could be manufactured. Boing Boing reported that the search had lasted roughly 12 years before the design was reached. Harshbarger also built five oversized versions, each approximately 3.5 feet across. The giant dice are displayed inside Auburn University’s STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex, turning an abstract mathematical solution into a conspicuous piece of campus science equipment. The dice are not described as a general replacement for ordinary game accessories, but they solve a specific problem: selecting a first player among as many as five people without giving anyone an advantage or allowing the result to end in a tie.