The name of the game is petals around the rose...

[LGM]

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.

[shbaz]

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. 

[MrColossal]

heh i got it on my first try also, which means that i'm so smart i looped around to being stupid again

* MrColossal is not consoled by that statement

[MillsJROSS]

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

[Kinoko]

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.

[DGMacphee]

Took 5 mins for me. Me am very smart.

[veryweirdguy]

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.

[Mr Jake]

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

[visy (the guy who made Lassi Quest)]

Heh, took me about 10 minutes

Nice puzzle, I've never seen this before

[mätzyboy]

10 min for me aswell... I like this kind of games!

[Peter Thomas]

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.

[Ali]

I worked out how to predict the answer, then spent about as long trying to work out how it related to the title.

[Peter Thomas]

I (personally) thought the title was pretty obvious. Others seem to think otherwise?

[Nacho]

I got it in 10 seconds.

[Kweepa]

I seriously doubt Bill Gates
(a) wasted his time
(b) would have spent 3 hours getting the easy answer

[Andail]

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.

[SSH]

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.

[Kweepa]

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.

[Chicky]

"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...*

[SSH]

Petals around the Rose(s) would be a better name...

Anyone for a game of Chinese Numbers?

* SSH arranges some sticks to form an irrelvant pattern while placing three fingers on the floor/table

It's a 3!