The Most Powerful Dice - Numberphile

[@jkazos]

"If the other one were careless enough to show its zero." I love this guy's choice of phrasing!

[@chriswebster24]

Yeah, that would be pretty careless.

[@YostPeter]

"We want to avoid arithmetic." -Tadashi Tokieda

[@dielaughing73]

Wee I hope so, I can't even count to ten gazillion!

[@MarcTelang]

@@dielaughing73 but it's NUMBER phile

[@DrKaii]

​@@MarcTelang he's from arithmephile

[@ExhaustedElox]

Once again, Tadashi-sensei explains a complex concept well before ever referring to it so the audience isn't disengaged by complicated sounding terms. He is a great educator.

[@aurelia8028]

It really isn't that complicated

[@Bluedragon2513]

5:04 There it is. The legendary anime, glass-setting middle finger. It appears once every few months to even years. I applaud. He is great.

[@naivejulian9532]

yeah =))

[@Cadrid]

I'm a simple man. When I see a Tadashi video I watch it, my mind is blown, and then I hit "Like" in a math-induced stupor.

[@fossilfighters101]

+

[@Klayhamn]

I'm a simple man. When I see descriptions of what other simple men do, I like, and comment - telling my story as a simple man.

[@morgiewthelord8648]

@@Klayhamn its just that simple

[@Triantalex]

false.

[@robertb3672]

One of the more profound quotes by an undergraduate professor that taught me a few years ago: "The problem with real life is that friendship is not transitive."

[@sommers6235]

I once made an argument in one of my sketchbooks that the closer human relationships were to following equivalence relations, the stronger those relationships are. It's been many years and many ponderings, but I still think there may be some truth to it.

[@iytbazzie7723]

Surprisingly, I first learned about this phenomenon when compairing stats for guns in Borderlands 2.

[@brianpso]

I just can't get enough of his lessons, I need more Brady! Please!

[@numberphile]

we're working on it

[@brianpso]

Derek Leung Thanks a lot! I'm gonna watch it later today =D

[@tauceti8341]

Professor Tadashi has a great general maths lecture with toys that's definitely worth checking out. I had great fun with Tadashis toy lecture.

[@hedonisticzen]

I love the way he uses language at times. "Careless enough to show it's 0" also gave me a new perspective on probability! I feel like I gain so much from his videos.

[@TheDarkFalcon]

Tadashi needs to host a podcast, I could listen to him all day.

[@lmiddleman]

He has a great voice and an excellent command of English... a natural.

[@fossilfighters101]

+

[@bambiwhite6385]

I prefer that he gets some rest and lives a long life to be around and do his work

[@12tone]

Neat! Would love to see a follow-up with James Grime, who has his own set of these with additional interesting properties.

[@mzadro7]

Well it’s wierd to see you here

[@_wetwillyinc]

@@mzadro7 nah man Music theory is just group theory mod12

[@WilliamWizer]

to be precise he has a set of five that have 2 different cycles. one of the two gets reversed if you play with two dice instead of one. this makes it fun because you can play with two other players and let them choose die so long as they let you decide how many dice will be used on the roll. you are guaranteed to have a stronger chance to win no matter what they choose. he made me wonder if it's possible to do it for more players (you plus 3 others). haven't found a solution but it's fun to try.

[@PauLtus_B]

5:04 did you just give us the finger?

[@SecretofTerra]

No, it was meant specifically for you ;)

[@PauLtus_B]

XPossseidon I know XD

[@PauLtus_B]

Secreto Terra I'd feel honored to get the finger from Tadashi.

[@SapphireCrook]

As a glasses wearer myself... That sometimes happens and I instantly panic if anyone took it personal.

[@PauLtus_B]

Sapphire Crook I'd be surprised if anyone took that as an insult.

[@GameNationRDF]

Yet again Tadashi blows my mind

[@vicr123]

I don't know why I found that "ten gazillion" thing so funny... :)

[@minimanimo7239]

Why not m8? :)

[@spider853]

Because of Godzilla? Tadashi.... Godzilla.... Tadashi... Godzilla ;) you see the connection?

[@litigioussociety4249]

I want one of those 10 gazillion dice.

[@vicr123]

Litigious Society Imagine playing Snakes and Ladders with that :P

[@bytefu]

Probably because 10 is not much compared to gazillion, which is supposed to be some very large number, so it doesn't really make any difference, thus putting it before the gazillion is meaningless and therefore funny, just like shooting a single bacteria from a giant cannon.

[@jimmykeffer7401]

This needs to be a game where you design die and try to beat your opponents' die. More tadashi!

[@WilliamPeytz]

666666

[@Dolkarr]

9,9,9,9,0,0 - same total value, but beats yours (6,6,6,6,6,6) This really could be an interesting game mechanic, if you distribute a fixed amount of points between a set of values, since it has nice rock-paper-scissor behavior. 10,10,4,4,4,4 - same value again, beats the above, but loses against yours. If we continue... 10,10,7,7,1,1 - beats all of the above, but... 8,8,8,8,2,2 - beats that, but not the others except for the 6's. Now.. given a fixed value, which distribution of points beats the most other configurations?

[@Maharani1991]

+

[@jimmykeffer7401]

Dolkarr How does 10,10,4,4,4,4 beat 9,9,9,9,0,0? wouldnt it lose.... nvm it wins 55% So let's go with 36 as the number of given points to distribute. What combinations would be the best? 9,9,10,8,0,0 - beats 6,6,6,6,6,6, and ties 9,9,9,9,0,0, I'm too lazy to do the rest 11,11,11,2,1,0 - another combination that can beat the 10,10,4,4,4,4 *metagame intensifies*

[@meneldal]

If you allow negative numbers, I propose 1 gazillion 5 times and -5 gazillion once. Wins 5 out of 6 against everyone here.

[@venkatchait007]

Amazing, you know the teacher is good when the solution seems obvious once explained :O

[@RPMRosie]

i honestly love the tadashi videos

[@numberphile]

so do we

[@angusmacdonald4860]

This guy is the most interesting mathematician to listen to u On numberphile..

[@LeviJohansen]

5:1 and 3:3 is equal.

[@safrprojects]

Yet if you compare the other opposites, 662222 is stronger than 444400

[@natew.7951]

@@safrprojects yeah that's what I wish had been mentioned. It's obvious that one of the two comparisons that weren't made in the video (333333 vs 555111) is equal, but the other one isn't as obvious. I had to do the math myself to see if it was equal.

[@Aggressiphyst]

This all needs to be implemented in a board game of some kind.

[@armcie5080]

@@Aggressiphyst Throw away the board.... how about if you somehow made hand symbols to represent the dice. And maybe just use three of them.

[@a.velderrain8849]

@@safrprojects Indeed. 662222 beats out 444400 20/36 times, or 5/9 times, for anyone who was interested and didn't want to do the math.

[@TheRealPunkachu]

This is something I study a lot in game design. It's important to look at breakpoints like this when you look at balancing statistics.

[@Zince]

probably my favorite guy for this channel

[@subh1]

what's the probability?

[@YC80087]

Tadashi's lessons never ceased to amaze me! I learn every single time I watch his video!

[@NiLowther]

Spent most of the video thinking "how could these dice be incorporated into D&D..."

[@minecraftermad]

Easy sand off everything between 5 and 18 from the d20 and let people choose wether to use d20 or d6 for rolls

[@pedroscoponi4905]

You could build strange magical weapons that use these weird dice instead of the ordinary roll. Maybe a shortsword from Mechanus always rolls the average of 3, for example. You could also have the dice be magical objects themselves in-fiction, and rolling certain faces on certain dies would have specific effects. Then you just give the actual dice set out as a prop ;)

[@xSaucecode]

I love these videos with Tadashi! So simple and elegant.

[@rich1051414]

Love this video. I was just talking to someone the other day how logic and common sense are not the same thing, and sometimes logic completely contradicts common sense. This is a great example of that. If A is better than B, and B is better than C, then common sense would dictate A is better than C, but logically you cannot be certain about such a claim.

[@losveratos]

@@eltodesukane No it isn't.

[@FlyingTurtleLP]

Numberphile, I really love your vids. Mr. Tokieda explained that extremely well. Thank you!

[@mspeir]

I knew it! I knew gazillion was a number! A mathematician just said so!

[@MrAllenCrown]

Who want's to be a Gazillionaire? I know I do.

[@MrRedtail26]

finally

[@fossilfighters101]

+

[@lythd]

what is that number? how many zeros? ya i thought so

[@HaloInverse]

It doesn't have a fixed number of zeros. A gazillion is defined as "the smallest positive finite power of ten that is effectively infinite for practical purposes", i.e. slightly bigger than anything else you'll be dealing with, but not actually infinite. It's part of the family of numbers known as "Parker constants".

[@ber2996]

Dice A, B, C, and D B has win rate of 66.7% against A C has 66.65% win rate against B D has 66.65% against C and A has 66.7% against D

[@bogdanyer]

wow! that is so counterintuitive!

[@TRUCKLOADOFPAIN]

Tadashi could literally make a video of him just telling the entire world how terrible of a person I am and I would still love it. Dude's awesome.

[@yungml]

When Tadashi says "nifty"

[@zelda12346]

6 is the strongest because in the entire, uniterated meta-game it beats 4 and 5 where 3 ties with 5. So, while the loop is a non-transitive tournament, there are still two more edges to the full graph. It is in these two edges we can make a ranking. Additionally, if we zoom out and consider pick rates for the prior information, even when considering this non-transitive loop, we can rank the four dice as equally strong, according to the definition given.

[@reesverleur9546]

Would you mind giving your calculation? I had a feeling this was true from some cursory calculations but I wasn't able to totally convince myself.

[@zelda12346]

@@reesverleur9546 Sure. 6 beats 5 as show in the video. 6 beats 4 because: The probability of A rolling 0 and B rolling 6 = 1/3*1/3 = 1/9 P of A=4 and B=6 = 2/3*1/3 = 2/9 P of A=0 and B=2 = 1/3*2/3 = 2/9 P of A=4 and B=2 = 2/3*2/3 = 4/9 As you can see, only one of these events ends up with A winning, event #4 which has a probability of 4/9, less than 0.5. Thus, A is weaker than B. 3 is equally strong as 5 because 3 is a constant die and the 1's and 5's are equally probable on the 5 die. Hence, a both dice are equally likely to win when head-to-head.

[@JamesSpeiser]

Very counterintuitive and interesting!

[@SamBegich]

Tadeshi Blows My Mind Every Time. He does it so graciously too.

[@Hogibaer]

I always knew "10 gazillion" was a legit number! :-)

[@MrDasbinich123]

yeah that part made me smile ... which hurts because I just got my wisdom teeth removed ._.

[@johancouder8013]

Of course it is ! Economists use it all the time, as in: "The US debt is 10 gazillion dollars" :)

[@Seltyk]

This is what makes rock-paper-scissors the game that it is

[@zhangpe1]

The 5,1 dice and the all 3's dice relationship could be a clue as well. One dice can't not be declared stronger than the other.

[@gsurfer04]

It's always nice to start the day with Tadashi-san.

[@cortster12]

No, he's more of a teacher role. So sensei would fit better.

[@adizmal]

Tadashi is a boss.

[@nix207]

Some of the concepts in this shed some light on the paper i did as an undergraduate. I now appreciate both this video and my own work as well. Now if I only had the time, I would have used some of the ideas here to simplify my calculations massively.

[@Birkirrey]

Wow... The necessity for cross validation of statistical models just clicked for me in a new way. Mind blown!

[@WCairforce]

I'm loving all the dice related videos! These set up some fun experiments for students to explore. Cheers

[@JMcMillen]

I noticed something when I compared the dice to their non-adjacent die. 333333 vs 555111 is even odds, half the time you win and half the time you lose. But with 662222 vs 444400, 662222 has a slight edge over 444400.

[@UnCavi]

Are you sure? I think it's even odds as well

[@anothermoth]

It can't be even. Both dice could be mapped onto 3 sided dice without changing the probabilities. When you roll 2 d3, there are 9 possible outcomes which is an odd number. If there are no draws then one must win more than the other. 662222 beats 444400 5/9ths of the time.

[@alkoholhaltigdryck]

662222 has a 1/3 probability to roll a 6, which always wins. It has a 2/3 probability to roll a 2, in which case it wins 1/3 times. 1/3 + (2/3)*(1/3) = 0.555... 662222 indeed has a slight edge.

[@SPACKlick]

555111 cannot be mapped onto a 3 sided die. 333333 and 555111 can be mapped to a two sided die/coin as 33 and 51.

[@TheShadowOfMars]

6:02 Two comparisons were missed out: The left die (662222) beats the right die (444400); The upper die (555111) and the lower die (333333) are equal.

[@firstnamelastname4752]

Gonna like before watching because Tadashi is always the dankest.

[@pietervanderplas9592]

Yeh, his videos are awesome. Love this guy.

[@nerdcedric]

Now I can tell my math teacher that one of the most liked Numberphile mathematicians said "A Gazillion"

[@zachell1991]

I found that ironic when he used 10 gazillion.

[@jesusthroughmary]

After watching the video, I can say that your confidence is well placed.

[@eustatianwings]

Does anyone else have non-transitive preferences between mathematicians?

[@the.y.method]

I love watching Tadashi videos. He is full of fascinating insights and thoughts. Discovered him before I saw him on Numberphile though, doing a series of lectures in Cape Town at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, lecturing on topology.

[@ber2996]

"A is stronger than B and B is stronger than C but it's not necessarily means that A is stronger than C" I might use this example in a certain situations.

[@losveratos]

@@eltodesukane No it isn't.

[@cmilla111]

I like his final point. So many people think not paying attention to math growing up just means they will need a calculator. They don't realize how stuff like this seeps into so many things in life.

[@ZimoNitrome]

Oh yeah Tadashi be my waifu

[@Nessa-939]

Hej Simon

[@ZimoNitrome]

Anka Hej Ankan

[@ichbinein123]

ZimoNitrome, du er en af de fugtigste svenskere jeg kender på den anden side at Øresund! Keep it up!

[@scottcomber]

I wish I could listen to this man lecture all day. Just perfect explanations.

[@JazzRadioFfm]

i always knew that soccer (or any other sport) tournaments don't mean anything. depends on which team you play; if your strengths match the weaknesses of your opponents.

[@ND62511]

Any time my friends get into powerscaling debates with 3 or more characters I’ll just show them this video

[@RainnySkies]

Tadashi has taught me more than all of my math teachers ever have.

[@ThatGuy-nv2wo]

And you're English teachers...

[@rupertlosl122]

The irony...

[@ichbinein123]

My math teacher in highschool was educated in philosophy, but he said that the two subjects are so closely related, that one compliments the other in a surprising amount of ways.

[@ichbinein123]

That Guy Nah, friendo, he had a point. A lot of real logical problems can be quantized with mathematics. It doesn't even have to be particularly complicated. Besides, it's not as if he wasn't educated in math as well. He had a masters in philosophy, and a bachelor in mathematics, so he had his credentials in order.

[@ThatGuy-nv2wo]

IchBinEin Fair enough, but I still hold my point that philosophy is nothing like maths.

[@AGOW100]

This was a very informative video. Probably one of the best of Tadashi.

[@gui1521]

Got the answer, most powerful dice is the one with 10 gazillion on all faces. Ez

[@fishecod2552]

sorry, i think you missed the one with 10 gazillion 1 on it.

[@gui1521]

fishecod Must be quite a huge dice ._.

[@lxathu]

Should you try to throw it, you would be about to die.

[@lythd]

or maybe oo on all faces!

[@conradbamboozled1653]

Ok but like what if one of the sides had 10 gazillion and 1 on it???

[@vipermagi5499]

I have no idea what those dice are made of, but the sound they make when they hit that table is very pleasing.

[@CreateWithRobin]

Professor Tadashi got me thinking again - this time about how to improve the design of a game I'm working on :)

[@chyousub]

You might like to map it out. Just did it for interest because i like to see well balanced games too. The dices with the 5 and 6 win over 2 other dices. But the dices with the 3 and 4 only win over one other dice. That is still useful for games. The 3 and 4 can be healer and tank like in mmos. The 6 and 5 range and melee attack.

[@pawebielinski4903]

I object to the analogy with medicine. The quantity, percentage, etc. of people cured can be expressed by a number, so of course a>b>c implies a>c. The situation is quite different than that of these interesting dice.

[@jevicci]

This guy's ability to explain things in a language that's foreign to him is extremely impressive.

[@NoahSpurrier]

This reminds me of the False Positive Paradox, for some reason; although, I don't think it's actually related. But it gives me the same sort of pleasure when the counter-intuitive understanding finally clicks in my mind.

[@PauLtus_B]

I'd love a d20 with 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,10 gazillion

[@nahuelmat]

The ultimate critical hit

[@benfischer9333]

Have used this video in lots of math classes - it's a great video to demonstrate the role of surprise in math.

[@SheezyBites]

The 6,2 dice is the best though because it's the only one statistically stronger than 2 other dice... at least until people start using the all 3 dice to try and win the meta game.

[@Moorb0y52]

And then there would be a small number of people running the niche 4,2 strat to counter the 3s

[@randomdogdog]

just doing the maths for those who want it, the dice are: 3 3 3 3 3 3 (3), 4 4 4 4 0 0 (4), 5 5 5 1 1 1 (5), 6 6 2 2 2 2 (6) 3 beats 6, ties 5, loses 4 4 beats 3, loses 5, 6(5/9th of the time) 5 beats 4, ties 3, loses 6 6 beats 5, 4, loses 3

[@awyoung706]

To answer that last part: If all 4 dice were pitted together in one final battle to the death, The 6 and 5 die are the best with a 33% chance of winning. The 4 die has a 22% chance of winning, and the 3 die has an 11% chance of winning (don't pick that one!)

[@djbrowny]

Thank you for saving my brain from a cognitive dissonance meltdown. I couldn't comprehend his analogy with drugs and implying that C>A>B>C. That's not possible with discrete data.

[@ComradeTiki]

Here's a game for you: Two players discreetly select a die in order. The first player receives what they selected. If the second player requested the same, they pick again (knowing which die the first player chose). Since 6,2 is the best in a battle royale, and player-A knows this, but if player-B chooses the same, then for their second pick they're guaranteed to pick all-3's... so player-A could set an ambush by choosing all-3's. Unless the second player tries this as well and then learns to choose 4,0. So player-A might as well set a trap by starting on 4,0. But it will lose if player-B starts on 6,2. From a random Monty-Hall problem standpoint, it looks like player-B will win more often, but something tells me that in applied setting it would balance toward Rock-Paper-Scissors (50%).

[@Dilton94]

I love Tadashi's videos! They are sure to get me instantly clicking!

[@Unparadoxability]

This has been known for a long time for pokémon enthusiasts. Charizard beats Venusaur. Venusaur beats Blastoise. But no-one would conclude that this means Charizard beats Blastoise!

[@pounet2]

I don't understand how this could apply to the comparison of drugs efficiency. if A, B and C are different drugs and P(A), P(B) and P(C) their respective percentages of success. Then B is better than A means that P(A)< P(B) C better than B means P(B)

[@Ocklepod]

James grimes did the same thing on his own channel, and now it's the third video of exactly the same dice.

[@blimeyitsRichard]

Yes he did

[@ricepatch]

This one's more powerful though.

[@Varksterable]

James Yang Each one beats the other, non-transitively?

[@FireyDeath4]

Hey! I saw a similar trick in a Murderous Maths book. So similar that it had 4 entities with 6 positions as well.

[@qaz010wsx]

"...This is something that should be know by all CITIZEN..." lol

[@Theraot]

League of Legends?

[@E1craZ4life]

Laugh Out Loud

[@rstriker21]

Lots of love

[@marshmelows]

and then he flips the bird ahah

[@ruben307]

logarithmic or linear

[@5eurosenelsuelo]

Great video and conclusion at the end

[@MrAntieMatter]

5:03 Tadashi, how dare you sir!

[@LJdaentertainer]

his gift to you

[@Br0ckHall]

The baritone of this man's voice is worth listening to without focusing on the actual video

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

When I saw this video, my first thought was to design a rock-paper-scissors type game around it. I immediately came up with a game in which two people randomly draw a die from the set of four presented in this video, and then roll their selected dice to determine the winner. Unfortunately, I found that in a series of random matchups, the [6/2] die is overall the strongest. [4/0] beats [3], odds 2:1 [5/1] beats [4/0], odds 2:1 [6/2] beats [5/1], odds 2:1 [3] beats [6/2], odds 2:1 [3] and [5/1] are matched 1:1. [6/2] beats [4/0], odds 5:4. Based on the above, we can see that [3] and [5/1] have average performance; they are weak to one die, strong against another, and evenly matched by another. But [6/2] performs slightly better than all the others; it is weak to one die, but strong against the other two dice. Conversely, [4/0] performs slightly worse than all the others; it is strong to one die, but weak against the other two dice. But luckily, there's a way to fix this! You can even out this power balance if you make a small alteration: change the [4,4,4,4,0,0] die to a [4,4,4,4,0,X] die. X, in most cases, is equivalent to a 0, and loses to any other roll... *except* a 6, which it trumps. In a matchup between this die and [6/2], the chance of rolling 6 vs. X is 1-in-18; this alters the odds exactly enough that each die is equally likely to win against the other. So, by changing one of the 0's to an X, and giving the X the properties stated above, you have a game in which every die is strong against one, weak against another, and equalled by another. A perfect balance. ...Okay, so it would be a pretty boring game on its own. But you could use it as the basis for a tabletop RPG's combat system!

[@avocette]

late comment, but can you explain more in detail how (44440X) beats (666622)?

[@Seb135-e1i]

@@avocette Ah, that's where you've confused yourself and confused me. The 6/2 dice is not 666622, but rather 662222 Against 44440X, it'll work like this: 4 dice rolls a 0 with 1/6 chance, guaranteed loss. Rolls an X with 1/6 chance, wins with 1/3 chance if 6 dice rolls a 6. Rolls a 4 with 2/3 chance, wins with 2/3 chance if 6 dice rolls a 2. So let's see if the math checks out this time: 2/3 * 2/3 is 4/9. That's just under a half. This means that the X roll has to be at least 1/18, which will put it at 1/2 chance to win or lose. 1/6 * 1/3 is 1/18. Oh, that's why. The original comment states that the 4 dice is strong against 1 and weak to 2. This change does, indeed, make it strong against 1 and weak against 1, with it now being equal to the 6 dice.

[@calembur]

I read your whole explanation.

[@dankeman5266]

Brilliant, and brilliantly explained!

[@finnberuldsen4798]

This man could teach rocket science to preschoolers.

[@stefanilserbo2]

Thank you for this amazing video! Love Tadashi, he is really amazing!

[@spacegothgirl]

I would love a follow-up to this comparing the dice in Super Mario Party. Each character has a unique dice to give them all a different feel. It would be interesting if you could determine who's the strongest!

[@brokenwave6125]

At first a I thought "o, another non transitive dice video..."But Tadashi makes everything worth watching

[@alexare_]

A video about non-transitive dice on Numberphile, without everyone's favorite star, Dr. James Grime?? Not even a mention, or a link? Cmon Brady... Tadashi is great, but Dr. Grime has a great set of non-transitive dice named after him.

[@numberphile]

1. There is a link to BUY Grime dice in the video description 2. I've been asking Dr Grime to a do a Grime Dice video with me for YEARS without success.

[@taba1950]

I think he made a video in his own channel a while ago

[@SlyMaelstrom]

James Grime definitely made a video about non-transitive dice at some point. I was going to comment that he did it on Numberphile, but seeing this thread it makes more sense that he did it on his own channel. It also appears he did another video specifically about Grime dice which is actually shown on that Mathsgear website on the product page. I could understand why he wouldn't care to be redundant on the topic.

[@Wegnerrobert2]

vaego haha before I researched those dice I had assumed it's some set of 10^25 dice with a dimension of 2^363728949-1 or something like that because that's often the scale of mathematical discoveries lol.

[@ChrisCanMakeStuff]

This was great! So well explained.

[@MaxKoschuh]

excellent. very interesting to learn about the cicle. 5:04 WTF? :-)

[@ItchyKneeSon]

The same flag went up for me even though I've been living in Japan for over 6 years. Tadashi is Japanese and he almost definitely developed that habit before making his way west. In Japan, pop culture from the west has informed Japanese (and other countries, too, I imagine) that the middle finger has a negative connotation, so everybody here knows that it's not good to toss your lone middle finger up at someone, but in using it for anything else, it goes totally unnoticed because it doesn't have the same meaning in Japanese culture. Actually, being the longest finger, it's logically the most convenient and useful to use for a number of tasks, including pointing, referencing, and glasses up-pushing. :D It took a while to get used to, but now I've gotten quite used to it. In this case, it was difficult to miss, though. hahaha

[@bytefu]

ItchyKneeSon Didn't notice the gesture until read comments about it. We don't use it much in Russia either.

[@NoriMori1992]

+ItchyKneeSon I, a North American, also use my middle finger to push up my glasses, but I have _all_ my fingers extended when I do so. XD +Artm Borisovskiy I didn't notice it either. XD

[@ItchyKneeSon]

NoriMori That's called 'dazzle fingers'.

[@NoriMori1992]

+ItchyKneeSon By who? Why?

[@SecretofTerra]

Great video, and I agree that everyone should know this, as it can be quite counterintuitive!

[@ocallaghandesign]

this needs to be a game mechanic

[@oz_jones]

Rock, paper & scissors?

[@ocallaghandesign]

similar but better.

[@oz_jones]

A lot of strategy games use a similar mechanic but deeper.

[@klaxoncow]

Rock, paper, scissors? Sort of.

[@zerid0]

It's called rock-paper-scissors ;)

[@zerid0]

At first I wondered why you were explaining those dice again. But then I liked the conclusion :) Indeed it can be a useful thing to remember in real life. Have you ever made a video on Nash equilibrium ? I think it's also something everyone should know as it shows that sometimes thinking selfishly ends up being worse for everyone.

[@Pika250]

These dice are akin to the Fire, Water, Electric, and Grass types in Pokémon.

[@Pika250]

333333 Fire 004444 Water 111555 Electric 222266 Grass

[@tsunamininja]

Grass doesn't win or lose to electric tho

[@Pika250]

Think defensively. Grass resists electric but not the other way around.

[@Pika250]

it's been that way since gen 1

[@conradbamboozled1653]

Rock, bug, psychic, fighting?

[@theleastcreative]

Tadashi is amazing as always

[@victorlamarca5156]

10 gazillion is my favourite number

[@mockman100k]

The day comes closer where this channel is taken over by our king Tadashi

[@undergroundmonorail]

I'm familiar with nontransitive dice but can someone explain the medicine example? If A cures more than B and B cures more than C, then why wouldn't A cure more than C? It's not like nontransitive dice where the comparison between two can change over time. Assuming the studies were done properly the results should more or less stay the same, so it's not really like rolling B multiple times. You're doing (effectively) one trial for each and seeing which number is the highest.

[@kroppyer]

If you're confident (at some level) that A cures more people than B and that B cures more people than C, I'd say you can conclude you're confident (at the same level) that A cures more people than C, right? I don't think the medicine example works.

[@MasterHigure]

It could have to do with confidence intervals, but you also have to take demographics into account. Was A and B compared on women while B and C was compared on men? Or young vs old? Or different social standings? Or any other of probably hundreds of factors that could make the two results incomparable.

[@undergroundmonorail]

That makes sense to me but I assumed the studies in question would be equivalent. If that's not the case it's hard to say the results are really comparable at all.

[@Jack-sy6di]

If we're thinking of a drug as basically being a coin flip (it has a certain probability of curing any sick person it's given to), then "A cures more people than B" basically means "A has a higher success probability than B", so you're just ranking numbers, so yes, you can't get non-transitivity. Either he chose a bad example, or he was imagining some more complicated model that would make it work. I think one place where you can get nontransitivity is in voting. If when asked to choose between candidates A and B, most people prefer B, and when asked to choose between B and C, they mostly prefer C, that doesn't mean most people will prefer C to A. But that's kind of obvious.

[@kroppyer]

***** maybe you can point us to a specific paragraph or section in the 16 page document.

[@SuperMaDBrothers]

I love the animations on these

[@ghoulofmetal]

So this is similar to stone/paper/scissor.

[@jazzsoul69]

similar but not intuitive it deserves to be pointed out !

[@fghsgh]

I got wondering what the relation was between two dice on opposite sides of the circle, and figured out that they always have a 1/2 chance, so if A>B>C>D>A, then A=C and B=D. It could have been helpful to have said something about this in the video, but it doesn't really matter because like this you can have some exercise yourself.

[@strawhatroger1657]

Isn't the 1st and 3rd die the same (50/50) because it's 555111 and 333333 therefore each die wins half the time and loses the other half :/

[@timschonning269]

It can't be even. Both dice could be mapped onto 3 sided dice without changing the probabilities. When you roll 2 d3, there are 9 possible outcomes which is an odd number. If there are no draws then one must win more than the other. 662222 beats 444400 5/9ths of the time.

[@snowfloofcathug]

I agree

[@JossLun]

I agree with Straw, the 1st and the 3rd die are equal. No matter how many you throw, both types will win as many times as the others. And sums also have the same average value

[@KittyBoom360]

Straw Hat Roger, nice catch! Yes, the dice 555111 vs 333333 have a probability of 1:1 for predicting outcome of each roll.

[@KittyBoom360]

Tim, no, 555111 cannot be mapped to 3 sided dice, what three numbers, 551, 511, 555, 111??? it could be reduced to a 2 sided/coin tho 51

[@PersonaRandomNumbers]

Reminds me of the video about nontransitive dice with James Grime! I'm surprised numberphile hasn't made a video about it until now.

[@vkillion]

Didn't we already see a video on non-transitive dice featuring Dr. James Grime (aka singingbanana)?

[@vkillion]

I guess it was never on Numberphile. It was on Dr. Grime's personal channel (singingbanana) and the Maths Gear channel (mathsgear).

[@Drachenbauer]

this reminds me to the 18 pokemon types. Every typa has a weakness to minimum one type

[@Czeckie]

I love Tadashi. But this is like the third video on nontransitive dice.

[@numberphile]

it's our first!?

I think he just meant dice, but dont listen to him, more dice videos please.

[@Bronzescorpion]

I don't think he meant just dice, but rather people following this channel tends to follow James Grime and Matt Parker and they also did similar videos. It can sometimes be hard to remember which channel you saw it on, because of the similarity, hence the confusion and the comment.

[@Jack-sy6di]

There are several videos on KZbin with people who often appear on numberphile showing off nontransitive dice, but none on the actual numberphile channel. I was confused at first too.

[@ENKOYT]

So it works kind of how in rock paper scissors, even if scissors beats paper which beats rock, it doesn't necessarily mean scissors beats rock? Great video, I'd love to see more Tadashi in the future!

[@lemonke8132]

He just flipped me off 5:02

[@davide1913]

Great Math Video! Thank You!