Probability and Space - More Interesting Than Magic

Author: (Korean) Huang Can / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: The Miracle of Dice
There is a legend called "The Miracle of Dice." Once, two people were on trial before a judge. The judge was convinced that one of them must be a criminal, but he couldn’t correctly determine who was guilty and who was innocent. In desperation, the judge made a ridiculous decision: each person would roll dice in front of the king. The one with the higher total number of dots on the dice would be declared innocent, while the one with the lower total would be the criminal.
The first person rolled the dice in front of the king, and miraculously, both dice landed on 6, giving him a total of 12 points. Since no number could be higher than that, the first person would never be convicted. On the other hand, the second person was in a dire situation—any die that did not show a 6 would result in an immediate death sentence. The second person knelt down and prayed, "Lord, You know I am innocent. Please let a miracle happen!" After rolling the dice, a miracle truly occurred! One die showed 6, while the other broke in the middle. Half of the broken die was 6, and the other half was 1, resulting in a total of 13 points.
The real criminal, who had just rolled 12 points, saw this miracle and felt extremely terrified and uneasy. As a result, he confessed. Although this story is cited here, it has no necessary connection to probability problems. Probability theory only applies to general predictions of numbers under normal circumstances and does not apply to the special situation in this story. P10-11