I have the answer... can you get it? (http://personal.baker.edu/web2/cdavis09/roses.html)
If you find out DO NOT SAY, not even in a {hide} tag. PM me if you really want to confirm it, although if you get it you will probably know.
If you want to try this out on your friends, include that you will tell them the answer each time if need be.
This tests your ability to think in a certain way. Enjoy. Bill Gates took 3 hours, for your information.
I hate these fucking puzzles. Seriously. It's not frustration, it's just general hatred. It's usually some solution that nobody could have reasonably guessed.
This game is annoying the hell out of me.
I'm trying calcuations, algorithms, geometric patterns and all this other crap, and I still can't get one answer right.
... I don't see how this can be easy. :-\
I figured it out in 10 minutes.
Here's a hint: Don't think too hard.
Pretty much figured it out on my first roll; I did a few more rolls to be sure, and got the fourth or fifth of them wrong as I was unsure as to what counted - beyond that, though, 'twas piss easy.
Migs' hint probably provided a lot of help, though (although I can't really be positive as to how long it would have taken me to get into that frame of mind otherwise).
Obligatory elitist "I figured it out in X minutes" post.
Replace X with 4.
Quote from: Shattered Sponge on Tue 25/05/2004 21:28:55
Pretty much figured it out on my first roll; I did a few more rolls to be sure, and got the fourth or fifth of them wrong as I was unsure as to what counted - beyond that, though, 'twas piss easy.
Migs' hint probably provided a lot of help, though (although I can't really be positive as to how long it would have taken me to get into that frame of mind otherwise).
Oh yeah, "Don't think too hard" provides a LOT of help. Once I figure it out, I'll provide a lot better help than that ambiguous statement.
EDIT: OK, I just figured it out.
Edit by Andail; you weren't allowed to provide hints. People who want hints could always PM you who solved it.
Oh yeah. I know people hate to see this when they haven't gotten it yet, but it is easy. And I know this is annoying too, but the name IS important.
The idea was to let people figure it out for themselves. Not to give away the answer so quickly.
At first I was "What the hell?" but then I realised what's it all about and "D'oh!".
Gah, son of a... I was definitly thinking too hard.... 53 minutes later
Holy moly, Sutebi posted!
I got it also, it's relativly easy :)
Piece - o - piss.
Simple!
Easy!
Any more ways i can rub it in for people who haven't got it yet?
Yep, Dark Stalkey, I've returned from my, well, about three year hiatus.
I don't really think these hints give it away. I would actually be really annoyed by these hints.
*pokes the prodigal son*
Yeah, button it with the hints. Interesting responses so far.
And about half an hour later of thinking not too analytically, I've finally got the answer.
I guess being a junior computer programmer makes this puzzle tough; for a program, you have to think logically, and not too creatively. And in this puzzle, the opposite is needed.
Quote from: Esseb on Tue 25/05/2004 21:31:13
Obligatory elitist "I figured it out in X minutes" post.
Replace X with 4.
Well, as the page says
"he would always explain that the smarter you were, the longer it took to figure it out." ... 'nuff said :P
Anyway, I don't have the patience for these puzzles. It's the kind of wierd stuff you see in mensa quizzes and stuff, and you spend ages getting frustrated over it, only to be slapped in the face with a really obvious answer.
I was really frustrated for about 30 minutes before i got it.
Got it straight off. But then Ispent ages trying to work out a similar puzzle, so I guess that helped...
20 minutes later... Aha!
20 minutes earlier ... I'd never have thought of that solution.
Well.. I guess I'm too smart.. I don't get it.. I've gotten a few right answers, but on a whim..
EDIT
With some hints from Mob.. I got it.. Bah.. I figured it had something to do with what I was thinking about the thing with the other things.
I don't get it. I can only take consolation in the statement from the professor on that page.
Somebody PM me if you feel like it. Then PM everyone else to tell them you PM'd me, and they don't need to. ;)
heh i got it on my first try also, which means that i'm so smart i looped around to being stupid again
/me is not consoled by that statement
It took me only a few minutes to figure this game out, and while I got this gooey warm feeling upon accomplishing this task. It's not so much a math puzzle as much as figuring out how the title applies to the game. If you're still stuck solving it, you need to find the derivatives of the slope of the graph of the die. It won't really give you the answer, but, it'll be about as much of an effective use of your time.
-MillsJROSS
Yyyyeeeeessss! Ahh, the sweet smell of victory. How can one silly little puzzle make me feel so darn validated?
That's an interesting puzzle ^_^ It's true, as soon as I thought of the name and looked at the kinds of answers I was getting, it didn't take too long. I'd hate to think of how long that would have taken if I just kept trying difficult equations.
Took 5 mins for me. Me am very smart.
It disappoints me somewhat that I am classified as less smart than DG. I will probably have to be his personal slave or something now.
But I did get it eventually. Took me a while, but I got it. Makes you feel really smart, too. :)
it took me 3 tries..... and Im not joking
EDIT: opps,, it was wrong, I was just lucky to have it work about 10 times in a row :x
Heh, took me about 10 minutes :)
Nice puzzle, I've never seen this before :)
10 min for me aswell... I like this kind of games!
Meh. I liked this, until I figured it out, and then I though "THAT was pointless..."
It's not a 'thinking' problem. I prefer things that have an actual proper meaning behind them. You wouldn't call the answer to this puzzle very thought-provoking. It has nothing to do with intelligence at all... It's just...just...
gah! go read the title and DON'T THINK! The minute you start thinking you know you're on the wrong track. Seriously. Thinking is bad.
I worked out how to predict the answer, then spent about as long trying to work out how it related to the title.
I (personally) thought the title was pretty obvious. Others seem to think otherwise?
I got it in 10 seconds.
I seriously doubt Bill Gates
(a) wasted his time
(b) would have spent 3 hours getting the easy answer
It took me several hours, although I couldn't be arsed to check out more than a few combos, let alone study the outcome of the rounds...I just thought a while when I went to bed, and I got it then.
It's not like I got an aha-experience, I think the solution was just boring and the whole "riddle" a waste of time. I don't understand why it got so much attention in the first place.
The story goes:
In the book Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft
Empire, by James Wallace and Jim Erickson, on page 124 (Chapter 3, The
Microkids) there are the following paragraphs:
... the microcomputer group, including Gates, passed the time on the
airport terminal floor by playing a dice game called Petal Around the
Rose. Gates had not played the game before, but he was eager to try
his competitive hand. The game had been developed by students at the
University of Southern California. Five dice are thrown, and the
player is told three things: the name of the game is Petal Around the
Rose, the answer is always even, and there is a correct answer for
each throw of the dice. The player is told nothing else. If someone
gets the right answer five times in arow, it's considered prima facie
evidence they understand the game and they are sworn to secrecy.
It's a difficult game. Some catch on after only a few throws of the
dice, others need weeks, and a few never get it. Frustrated players
falling into the last category have resorted to running computer
simulations. Gates was one who never figured the game out. He did get
the right answer five times in a row, but not because he understood
what he was doing. He actually didn't have a clue. But with his
photographic memory, Gates was able to remember each correct answer
from a previous roll by another player. With five dice, it was quite a
feat of memorization.
Nelson Winkless realized that Gates was faking it when he picked up a
piece of paper Gates inadvertently dropped in the aisle of the plane
near his seat. On it Gates had written, peddle around the roses.
Knowing the proper spelling of the name of the game was essential to
solving the puzzle. His poor spelling guaranteed he would never figure
it out.
Huh.
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Although I'm not entirely sure I believe the scrap of paper part of the story. It's just a bit too neat.
Actually, the memorization part is quite impressive, given that there are 252 possible combinations.
"the smarter you were, the longer it took to figure it out."
hahahaha!!! I'm smarter than you all!! i CANT figure it out...
*edit* i did it ten minutes later...*
Petals around the Rose(s) would be a better name...
Anyone for a game of Chinese Numbers?
/me arranges some sticks to form an irrelvant pattern while placing three fingers on the floor/table
It's a 3!
This version of the story is a bit different and more detailed SSH:
http://member.melbpc.org.au/~lborrett/computing/petals-bg.htm
Seems he did figure it out eventually.
SSH, i think you helped them pretty(too) much.
Omg, i thought i never would see it, but when i looked better
Spoiler
to the title
,
i was relieved.....
oooh maaan....
Anyways, at first I wasnt even sure what petals were (for like 15 seconds)...
I can't believe I'm seeing people complain about this puzzle on an adventure forum!
Spoiler
It's a perfect example of a 'think outside the box' puzzle, surely?
Ah. I like this one...I think I used to play this when I was a kid. I was in kindergarten when a sixth grader showed it to me. Hehe. I loved it when no one else would understand. :)
(http://screen7.adventuredevelopers.com/bush.jpg)
If you can figure it out, you're actually the dumbest sh1t in the world!
And if you can't figure it out, you're actually Albert Einstein you'll be pleased to know!
woo-hooo
after many years (40 minutes) of blood, sweat and tears i finally got it (teh rose thingy)
mods - is the answer 12?
m0ds: I've no f***in' clue. Good thing, too, it has validated my existence as a human.
I've got a puzzle. I found it recently...
Jerry has $5 in the bank. Larry has $3. If Jerry owes Larry half as much as Larry has, then what is the largest prime number known to man?
No cheating!! This one should be easy!!! THINK OUTSIDE TEH BOX!!!11111
Oooh so close Peter! Think simpler!!1
Anyway the petals game was cutsie. I wish they did maths exams like that.
m0ds: Is the answer to your puzzle 11?
I got it, took a few minutes. My first whim was to find something similar to the doorman puzzle on Phatt Island on MI2. After that notion passed, I thought mathematically for a total of 2 minutes before I got lazy. And then the answer came.
Dart, correct! You must be Einstein! And your avatar is blatently Keen! That was the only game we were allowed on the computers at school back when I was 13.
I wun! I are teh r0x0r5!!?11! OMG WTF1?!1
Your school actually let you play Commander Keen? Pssh. Mine didn't. The only games my computer lab had were Word Munchers, Math Munchers and this Sesame Street math game.
Too bad.. We had Keen, Doom and a whole bunch of QBasic games, like Gorillas and Nibbles and those we'd made. The older BCC machine had Lemons. Okay, we weren't really allowed to have Keen or Doom but we had it on there anyway. ;) And Broken Glass, of course.
There wasn't actually much educational software back in those days - Encarta was only just getting off the ground, and wasn't used very much. There wasn't any mathematics software. So we had to resort to games. :P
m0ds: Mathematica and Maple, currently the most popular computer algebra systems, have both been around since the 1980s... and many other systems have been around for as least as long. (for example, GNU Maxima is based on Macsyma, development on which began in 1967)
Of course, it's questionable whether these can be considered "educational software". They're widely used by students in fields connected with mathematics (math itself, physics, IT...), but more as a tool than as a means of education.
edit: Also, by "there wasn't any", you probably mean your school didn't have it, or didn't offer it to pupils. I can't claim I know more about that than you do. :)
Hehe, Got it straight away :P
Gah, I kept trying to arrange the dice into a rose... damn this game. Damn it! It took me days!
Well the point I was trying to make was that the systems we had at school, didn't have mathematica software. Just games. Like Doom. ^-^
not Oregon Trail?
argh, i hate these "simple games." I don't think this way. I start looking for mathematical patterns in the most obscure and complicated ways. Of course, when I saw the hint, "the name is actually important" I knew immediately what the answer was....but without it...may have never gotten it :/
Wow. I must be immensely stupid :-[.
As soon as I saw the dice I got it.
I imagine this would be much more difficult if it were real dice in front of you and someone was standing there looking at you, waiting for you to figure it out.
I'm usually really bad at things like this. It honestly makes me wonder if I've seen it before and just forgotten.
later,
-junc