I feel like PE class and sports should be banned, except aquatics.

@henryseg@mathstodon.xyz
Oh and one more thing: the d120 would make a great Magic 8 Ball.

I used a certain program to make a list:

Me: Give me a list of Magic 8-Ball answers but for a d120 rather than the d20 inside a regular Magic 8-Ball.


Program:
Sure! A standard Magic 8-Ball has 20 answers broken into roughly three categories:

Positive (10): e.g., "Yes, definitely", "It is certain"

Neutral (5): e.g., "Reply hazy, try again", "Ask again later"

Negative (5): e.g., "Don't count on it", "Very doubtful"

For a d120 version, we’ll scale that up while preserving the same rough proportions:

Positive: 60 answers

Neutral: 30 answers

Negative: 30 answers

Here’s a list of 120 custom Magic 8-Ball answers for a d120:

✅ Positive (1–60)

It is certain

Without a doubt

You may rely on it

Yes, definitely

It is decidedly so

As I see it, yes

Most likely

Outlook good

Yes

Signs point to yes

Absolutely

No question about it

Definitely yes

Sure thing

Beyond a doubt

Indisputably

Yes, with confidence

Count on it

Affirmative

Totally

By all means

You got it

For sure

Indeed

Obviously

Everything points to yes

Green light ahead

Full steam yes

100% yes

Positively

Why not?

The universe agrees

Naturally

Very likely

No obstacles ahead

Looking good

Clear path

Stars align

Universe says yes

My circuits say yes

Yep

Thumbs up

Sounds like a plan

That’s a yes from me

Favorable outcome

Looks promising

Winds are favorable

I’d bet on it

All signs say yes

Of course

Almost guaranteed

Every indication says yes

You’re on the right track

Surely

Yes, go ahead

You're in luck

Destiny says yes

Probability is high

Conditions are perfect

That’s affirmative

❔ Neutral (61–90)

Reply hazy, try again

Ask again later

Better not tell you now

Cannot predict now

Concentrate and ask again

Unclear at the moment

Outcome uncertain

Flip a coin

It’s anyone’s guess

Not sure—try again

I’m processing…

Foggy outlook

Mood pending

Restate your question

Response not available

Thinking...

Hard to say

That depends

Undetermined

Could go either way

The mist is thick

Wait and see

Details murky

Ask again in a moment

Cloudy judgment

Cannot compute answer

Give it time

Maybe, maybe not

Unknown factors involved

Vibes unclear

❌ Negative (91–120)

Don’t count on it

My reply is no

My sources say no

Outlook not so good

Very doubtful

Definitely not

The odds are against it

Nope

I wouldn’t bet on it

All signs say no

No way

Unfavorable outcome

Nah

No chance

Denied

It’s not looking good

Absolutely not

Strongly doubtful

Rejected

No, and don’t ask again

Doesn’t look like it

In your dreams

The stars say no

Reality says no

Do not proceed

The answer is no

Hard no

Not this time

Save yourself the trouble

Negative—on all levels

Let me know if you'd like a printable version or a randomizer app version!


At least I've made a manual Divination table. What's ironic is that a Magic 8-Ball isn't electronic but the machine thinks it is. The Magic 8-Ball is just a d20 and was originally more of a psychic thing. The d120 version exists because it can.

@henryseg@mathstodon.xyz

There's a few things about the d120 that I think you should know.

Firstly, the disdyakis triacontahedron rolling in a wobbly fashion seemingly contradicts it having a sphericity of 0.9857, mathematically very close to the ideal (1) and this is likely due to the amount of faces which surpasses even the Archimedean solids. Also regardless of the symmetry, 120 times 3 sides is 360 degrees, so that could be another roadblock to going above 120. A mathematical maximum beyond just symmetry being the reason. Some people suggested using Triforce shapes to divide each triangle into 4 and I don't know how that would go.

Also what I use the d120 for is cryptography. It would be ideal for Diceware as the largest fair dice type other than the infinite families which turn into circles by the time you hit d50 on them. It can also roll random ASCII because there's 94 visible codepoints, and if you add space and tab (CR and LF newlines aren't wise because they're not OS-agnostic), giving you 96 values. 120 - 96 is 24, and 24x4 is 96, so you could avoid waste of rolls of 97 or higher via this, at least theoretically. 96 compared to neighboring numbers like 91, 94, 95, 98, and 100 divides cleaner into 128 and 256, so if you did Base96 on the rolls you could get raw bytes, getting around 120 not quite being 2^7. The ASCII could even be used in passwords alone. I run my rolls through BWTC32Key (whose output is Base32768). Also I've used r/d120lists NPC Professions and Single-word Personality Descriptions to make 2xD120 Diceware to go even further. r/d120lists has made tables for d120s that include d16 (though because 7x17 = 119, you could just reroll 120s and divide by 7, then re-roll any 17s), so hexadecimal is possible. That subreddit has made many lists for the d120 that are quite useful. Also it's possible for the d120 to replace quite a lot of non-standard side count dice beyond the standard set.
The d120lists lists are mostly TTRPG uses, but the subreddit owner made two lists, one that serves as a Spirit Board (Ouija) and one that serves as a Tarot deck. Well, if you take a Tarot deck, add the two jokers in regular non-Tarot US/UK playing cards, and then add Ouija, including "Hello", you end up with exactly 120 slots in a table filled. I made that list, and I found Unicode characters for them (also the ordering is in Unicode ordering, hence the joker placement. Also the Tarot extra cards use Unicode's non-number names, and the regular playing card names are used rather than stuff like Pentacles, and the list has other mathematical boons. It was well-designed), including for "Hello" and "Goodbye" (using the Enter Symbol for Hello and the Escape Symbol for Goodbye, and Thumbs Up for Yes and Thumbs Down for No), characters in UnifontEX, which is 16px/12pt, and it printed at that size is about the same physical size as the d120 numbers. Also in your Numberphile video you say that Skew Dice are occult-like. Meanwhile the d120 can do two types of occult Divination simultaneously, and so hypothetically a d120 "numbered" with these characters is possible. Using a glow-in-the-dark, Clear, Amber, Malachite, or Blue (Lapis Lazuli) d120 for this is interesting.

Also what would happen if you put some glow powder in the Malachite mix, because it's already a composite? Not to mention you can find glow material that isn't dependent on the daytime appearance looking white. Also if it's possible to diffuse a little glow powder inside a translucent d120. While you're at it, a commenter on one of your videos said you should partner with Chessex for more colors and patterns. And that a solution to the balance could be improved on (comment is attached).
Also since Ouija is sold as a board game, an oracle d120 would be the first board game use.

The d120 to select raffle winners would be interesting.

Also the d120 could technically go down a Glacier Bay Power Flush, and it would likely be more accurate of a clog shape than pool balls.

Regarding other experiments, I wonder how a disdyakis triacontahedron would work as a prism, especially if done using a laser. I'd love to see a pic.

Also the Malachite d120 is brighter on-camera.

Some commenters have said some numbers on the d120 and d48 either have too much or too little ink.

The former podcast Friendly Fire used the d120 to pick the next war movie to review, and a TikTok user uses a d120 to decide what to do on a given day. It would seem like the d120 is popular amongst more than just TTRPG people. Even raffles could use one.

Also the d120 would be nice to see in a board game. Perhaps a Poké-clone would be a good use. It's not like going over 120 monsters several times over would fit in a reasonable board game box. Ultimately the d120 is something extremely useful if one thinks outside the box, and I hope that these uses are wise. Replacing the balls in a Powerball lottery with d120s would result in 10,219x harder odds. Only 4 d120s gives 1/207 million, which is a bit easier than Powerball's 1/292 million. Oh and 3 d120s is a bit rarer odds than one in a million. People also use the d120 to decide who goes first in a 5 player game due to it being 5-factorial. So putting a d120 in a board game has even more use than emulating most dice types or making elusive random chance. Also a rainbow d120 would be interesting.

Of note is that I've done 3D printer art since 2013, especially with MeshLab, and I recognized the software in your videos.

Hopefully you find this insightful and useful. The d120 is even in Tabletop Simulator. I think it has become a meme at this point. Of course it can do the Bitcoin stuff the d60 does. Also it's ironic that it rolls faster than the d60 and d100 which both are effectively golf balls yet have quite fewer sides than the d120. I know some commenters have suggested bubbles or Zocchihedron rolling assistance despite this in spite of such methods being messy. Oh and people have actually stacked other dice on top of a d120. Also we should all be grateful the d120 has parallel opposite sides.

Ultimately the d120 has a lot of interesting traits and uses, and people have had a lot to say about it, and I hope I've covered enough ground here. I'm very curious what you make of all this. Good job with the d120. It would be a great teaching tool in statistics or Geometry/physics. I know you said Malachite was the first in a series (and a good first that attracts gamers), and I'm curious. It's good you know your audience. Malachite is one of my favorite minerals. I'm planning on bringing my d120 to stats class (I'm in university). I carry one around in case I need to decide something quickly. The Malachite one I have seems like its numbers are inked better than the glow one. The Malachite one just exudes a "classy" vibe to it, which I find nice.

Hopefully the d120 makes it into a notable TTRPG system. Also 120 was seen as the "greater hundred" so technically you DID make a fair d100, just the greater hundred. Hopefully you can rest easy knowing that. Also using a d120 as a d% allows for critical hits/bonus power/etc, and I do mean that a d120 can replace non-standard stuff.
The d120 can be used to do rolls of

d2, d3, d4, d5, d6, d7, d8, d9 (according to one YouTube commenter), d10, d11, d12, d13, d14, d15, d16, d17, d20, d24, d30, d40, d60, and d100 dice, in addition to its role as a d120, not counting stuff  like splitting the d100 into a d50 (and making THAT work as a d48) or excessive nested re-rolls (d16 has a table so the d17 method doesn't count against it) or wasteful blanks.
If you allow that stuff, a d120 could be quite literally an entire set of dice for any game. Some people use a d120 to represent multiple Platonic solid rolls (not to mention that the d120 shape has Platonic elements to it.

Honestly there's a lot more I could say about the d120 but I think you get the idea.

If you have any questions or want links to anything, let me know.

@argyleink@front-end.social
The problem with using the COLR table here besides the fact that the editor you used is Mac-only and costs a LOT of money, I'm using 65417 glyph slots (though two nonmarkingreturn and its sibling glyph can be removed, though notdef can't. There's 65414 codepoints in the font unless I unify glyphs which can't be done automatically in FontForge, and with notDef that's 65415, and TrueType complains above 65535 unless you use HarfBuzz beyond-64k extensions but the additional glyphs won't work on older renderers. So I have 120 easy slots left.) Because I'm so close to the non-HarfBuzz glyph count maximum, this is one issue precluding syntax highlighting via COLR, namely because doing so wouldn't show up in renderers that don't understand the extra glyphs.

Also the Wasm table is something that is easy to graft into UnifontEX. I use an old development Mac with ftxdumperfuser to extract Wasm tables from various fonts using them for fun and then injecting them into UnifontEX. The Wasm stuff only needs that table. Having a Wasm table that highlights means I could make UnifontEX work as a self-highlighting coding font. It's a great coding font due to it having heavy Unicode support.

@argyleink@front-end.social

Would it be possible to use the Wasm table that's part of HarfBuzz to make fonts automatically syntax-highlight? I'd LOVE to see that with UnifontEX (http://stgiga.github.io/UnifontEX or on other places). For the record, Wasm tables in fonts can do LLMs and font-level machine translation. UnifontEX is already a coding font, and I LOVE JS, so why not hammer the point home?

I hate when people post political stuff on Fedi, because it makes me mentally unstable. I wish Sharkey had an option to hide posts from view and in the process mute the authors, and that tagging doomposts was mandatory. For my own mental health I deliberately live under a rock, and I hate that people are mass-sharing bad news on Fedi. It didn't used to be that way in 2022. God, what is wrong with people who don't tag political or other doomposts. It takes a fucking day to wash that shit out of my mind. Not only spoiler it, but hashtag it so I can block the entire tag. Otherwise I may potentially start mass-blocking users who post or boost such posts, and I really do not want to have to do that. I don't need to see that shit. #fediblock #nopoliticstoday #tagyourspoilers #dontdoompost #nodepression #stfuabouttwitter #keepitlight #mentalhealthmatters

I just released UnifontEX finally (and I made a logo for it)!

http://stgiga.github.io/unifontex

http://unifontex.sourceforge.io

Go have fun! #opensouce #fontdev #fontdesign #font #unicode #coding #font