'The Eudaemonic Pie' is actually the title of a book written by a certain Thomas A. Bass. He was a student at University of California Santa Cruz(UCSC) and part of a group of fellow-students who called themselves the Eudaemons. The Eudaemons had a plan, which was to make us of their knowledge in physics and computer engineering to devise a way to predict the outcome of the roulette wheel. Check out Links for their homepage.
Their idea was to make use of non-linear dynamics to calculate the deceleration of the ball in the roulette wheel, based on factors such as the initial velocity of the wheel, friction due to contact between the ball and the wheel, bounce due to contact with the roulette diamonds and many others. By entering the variable time (at which the ball passes the person each cycle) into a computer program they wrote, they were able to isolate the possible final locations of the ball before it stopped, thereby increasing their odds of winning manyfold when betting. Of course, while their idea does indeed work, it is not as simple as it seems, for their work also involved the construction of a micro-computer to fit into a shoe, communication devices that can avoid casino security and the coding of the program, which required repeated testings on an actual roulette wheel.
But the main point about this book, and me introducing it to you here, is not to teach you ways to beat the dealer, but more rather the eudaemonic philosophy (and hence the title of the book). The entire project of the Eudaemons took several years to accomplish and all the members invested a lot of time and money into it (despite being students). In the end, their payoff (the eudaemonic pie) was meagre to say the least, but everyone parted with fond memories of the times which they had spent toiling on the project, of the human relationships forged in the struggle. They left not with bitterness at being unable to achieve financial success with their plan, but with happiness at being able to do something which each of them truly wanted to do, at being able to carry out the plan to the end despite the hardships and difficulties.
So, in short, grab a copy of this book! I mean you can read it to find out more about these crazy people and the things they did back then. Or you can perhaps learn some tricks on winning at the casino...
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