Dice Roller

This virtual dice roller can mimic the rolling of up to 5000 dice with any number of sides. Given that more than 3 dice are rolled, it will also provide some basic statistics as part of the results. To use the roller, please provide the number of dice to roll and the number of sides of each die and click either the "Roll" button or the "Start" button. Clicking the "Roll" option will roll the dice only once. Clicking the "Start" button will roll the dice until the "Stop" button is clicked.

Dice vs. virtual dice

Dice are used for many purposes in which the goal is to generate a random outcome, such as playing a variety of social games, as well as gambling. There are many different types of dice. Possibly the most well-known is the 6-sided die, where each face of the die represents one of the numbers, 1-6. However, there are dice that have 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, or even 20 or more sides. In many cases, physical dice are used. However, it also possible to make a virtual die.

Physical dice:

A physical die, as the name suggests, is one that exists in the physical world. It may theoretically have any number of sides, but most typically ranges from having 4-20 sides. Depending on the number of sides the die has, the shape will differ; there are cubic dice, triangular dice, and many other dice that take on some polygonal shape. When manufacturing dice, the goal is usually to make the dice well-balanced and fair, though of course there are cases in which imbalanced dice are manufactured with the goal of giving the user an unfair advantage. Even in the case when the dice is meant to be well balanced, inconsistency in the manufacturing process can lead to dice that are imperfectly balanced, making the dice not truly random.

Virtual dice:

A virtual dice is a dice that is rolled virtually rather than physically. Rather than having a varying number of faces (physical dice), each of which has an equal probability (theoretically) of occurring, virtual dice instead make use of random number generators to generate the random outcome. Specifically, most virtual dice, including the one for this calculator, are pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs). They differ from true random number generators (TRNGs) in that PRNGs use algorithms to generate the random sequences of numbers. In contrast, TRNGs are based on the measurement of physical phenomena that are truly random, such as atmospheric noise, thermal noise, radioactive decay measured over short scales of time, and more; generating a random sequence of numbers using TRNGs is typically less efficient, more time consuming, and more expensive than using PRNGs.

Despite the fact that PRNGs are not truly random, they have been studied to a sufficient degree that in most cases, the results adequately mimic a truly random sequence of numbers. When compared to physical dice, virtual dice are more likely to be closer to truly random than physical dice. Thus, for contexts where randomness is highly important, it can be more accurate to use virtual rather than physical dice, granted that the algorithm used is sound.