drop a plate

[beeja]

The context is...

There are no chance occurrences, and we've already seen how many fields of modern science corroborate this principle. But how can there be no random events! How can tossing a pair of dice, spinning a roulette wheel, or dropping a plate have order to them?

what drop a plate here is? it's a step in playing roulette?? sorry for silly question but i don't really understand what it is.

tks you,

[Coffa]

No, it's a totally separate example. The author is saying that dropping a plate by accident is something that appears to happen at random, like which face of a die lands uppermost, or which segment of a roulette wheel a ball drops in. It's not a very good example in my opinion.

[beeja]

is it possible, re the gambling thing, dropping a plate here is something about the slot machine? the way pictures on each reel come when we pull the handle. can we call that the picture plate?

[Coffa]

If it is, I've never heard it used that way. But then I'm not a gambler.

[beeja]

me too, huh...bad example, indeed.