The Eudaemonic Pie
Encyclopedia
The Eudaemonic Pie is a 1985 book by American author Thomas A. Bass
, about a group of University of California, Santa Cruz
physics graduate students (known as the Eudaemons
) who in the late 1970s and early 1980s designed and employed miniaturized computers, hidden in specially modified shoes, to help predict the outcome of casino roulette
games. The players knew, presumably from the earlier work of Shannon and Thorp, that roulette wheels obey Newtonian physics, and that by capturing the state of the ball and wheel and taking into account peculiarities of the particular wheels being played they could increase their odds of selecting a winning number to gain a 44 percent advantage over the casinos.
A British edition was published under the title The Newtonian Casino.
The major players in The Eudaemonic Pie are also featured in a sequel by the same author, The Predictors, about their subsequent careers in the world of finance.
Thomas Bass
Thomas Alden Bass is an American writer and professor in literature and history.- Biography :Bass graduated with an honors A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1973 and earned his Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness from the University of California Santa Cruz in 1980...
, about a group of University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
physics graduate students (known as the Eudaemons
Eudaemons
The Eudaemons were a small group headed by graduate physics students J. Doyne Farmer and Norman Packard at the University of California Santa Cruz in the late 1970s. The group's immediate objective was to find a way to beat roulette, but a loftier objective was to use the money made from roulette...
) who in the late 1970s and early 1980s designed and employed miniaturized computers, hidden in specially modified shoes, to help predict the outcome of casino roulette
Roulette
Roulette is a casino game named after a French diminutive for little wheel. In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even....
games. The players knew, presumably from the earlier work of Shannon and Thorp, that roulette wheels obey Newtonian physics, and that by capturing the state of the ball and wheel and taking into account peculiarities of the particular wheels being played they could increase their odds of selecting a winning number to gain a 44 percent advantage over the casinos.
A British edition was published under the title The Newtonian Casino.
The major players in The Eudaemonic Pie are also featured in a sequel by the same author, The Predictors, about their subsequent careers in the world of finance.