TED-Ed: Can you solve the cursed dice riddle? | Dan Finkel

Demeter, the goddess of harvest, uses magical dice to maintain balance. Loki curses her dice, removing the dots. To restore balance, Demeter must recreate the dice so that their sum frequencies match those of standard dice. The cursed die can only have up to four dots per side, while the other has no constraints. By strategically placing numbers on the dice, Demeter can achieve the same sum distribution as standard dice. This solution, discovered by George Sickerman in 1978, is the only alternative way to achieve this balance. Demeter successfully averts disaster and plans to repay the Norse gods.

What is the significance of the number of ways to roll each sum with the new dice?

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Who discovered the new type of dice and in what year?

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