Intransitive Dice

Three dice, red beats blue beats green beats red.
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updated March 14, 2023

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If Adam is taller than Bob, and Bob is taller than Chad, then Adam is taller than Chad. Not everything works that way. 

Here are 3 dice - red, green, and blue. They have the digits 1 through 9. Adam and Bob play a game. Adam chooses a die and then Bob picks a die. They each roll and whoever has the most spots wins.

Surprisingly,  Bob has the advantage because  on average, the red die beats the green die, and the green die beats the blue die -- and the blue die beats the red die (5/9 of the time).

So Bob can pick the die that will beat Adam. These are called intransitive dice.

If Chad, Adam, and Bob play together, the red and green dice win equally and the blue die loses on average.

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The author marked this model as their own original creation.

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