A dodecahedron, landing on one face, has 5 possible directions that are "easy" to go (the edges of that face). It's possible, of course, for it to bounce in any direction, but the minimum bounce height (and therefore probability of bouncing in a given direction) is least when it's bouncing toward the center of a given edge. So it's very easy for it to bounce in any of 5 different directions, and not much harder to bounce in any other direction (because the distance between the center of the face and a vertex is not much greater than the distance from center of face to center of an edge.
An icosahedron, on the other hand, can only roll "easily" in one of three directions. So it's less likely to be able to bounce off the table, move in one direction, bounce again in another direction, etc. This means it will come to rest more quickly.
Am I making sense or just rambling? |
