The 15-Year Quest for Perfect Fairness: Auburn Mathematicians Solve the Ultimate Dice Dilemma

You know, that moment in a board game where everyone rolls for who goes first, and someone inevitably ties? It’s a minor annoyance, sure, but for Eric Harshbarger, a senior lecturer in Auburn University’s College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM), and his former student, Robert Ford, it sparked a nearly 15-year mathematical odyssey. What began as a seemingly straightforward question about ensuring a truly fair, tie-free start to any game blossomed into an intricate, international acclaimed research project.

It all started, as many profound questions do, with a simple premise: how do you guarantee that when players roll dice to determine who goes first, there are absolutely no ties, and every single player has an equally fair shot at rolling the highest number? Sounds easy enough, right? Just use regular six-sided dice, you might think. But the truth is, standard dice, while great for random number generation, don't quite cut it for this specific challenge. They inherently carry the possibility of ties, and eliminating that entirely while maintaining perfect fairness is a much trickier beast than it appears.

Harshbarger and Ford, now a teacher at Dalton State College, dove headfirst into this captivating problem. Their collaborative quest spanned nearly a decade and a half, a testament to their perseverance and deep mathematical curiosity. Imagine chipping away at a single puzzle for so long, exploring countless avenues, hitting dead ends, and then, slowly but surely, seeing a path emerge. It was a true marathon of the mind.

Eventually, after countless calculations and, one can only imagine, more than a few 'Aha!' moments, they cracked it. Their ingenious solution? A set of four, specially designed 12-sided dice. Now, these aren't just any dodecahedrons; each face is numbered from 1 all the way to 48. This specific combination, they discovered, is the key. When each player rolls one of these unique dice, the system guarantees a distinct outcome for each roll, utterly eliminating the possibility of a tie, while simultaneously ensuring that every player has an exactly equal chance of rolling the highest number. It's truly brilliant in its simplicity once you see the result, but the journey to get there was anything but.

The duo actually found their initial breakthrough for using four 12-sided dice after about 12 years into their search, which just goes to show how long these things can take! Their discovery, when it was finally published, didn't go unnoticed. It garnered international attention, even featuring in a 2012 story by The Guardian, highlighting the universal appeal of such an elegant mathematical solution to a common problem. What's more, to commemorate this remarkable achievement, Eric Harshbarger himself designed and built a giant wooden sculpture of these very dice. You can find this impressive artwork gracing the grounds of Auburn's STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex, a tangible monument to a long, successful quest.

This whole story, which Auburn University proudly shared in August 2026, really underscores the power of persistent inquiry and collaborative spirit. It's a fantastic reminder that even the simplest questions can lead to incredibly complex and rewarding mathematical journeys, ultimately enriching our understanding and, in this case, making board game nights just a little bit fairer.