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Journal FortKnox's Journal: Time Waster 36

Journal by FortKnox
Picked this up off of BBSpot.

The Petals around the rose game. Try and figure out the answer. There are 3 rules.
1.) The name of the game is "petals around the rose."
2.) The answer is always even (or 0, even though 0 is considered even).
3.) You can be told the answer for any roll.

You can, of course, read the story of Billy Gates trying to understand the game. It may help a little. The smarter you are, the harder it will be.

Took me a loooong time to understand it... then I eventually caught on. Don't give away the answer (if you must, do it AC so you don't give it away to people that are trying to get it).

See you all in a couple of hours.
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  • I got it in about 5 minutes. But you gave a big hint. :) And the notion of "It's really just a random number generator and the real test is in how long you waste your time" did cross my mind...
    • Hey, don't feel bad, I got it in about 5 seconds but there's other shit that I can't get at all, like those pictures within pictures things, where when you stare at them another picture is meant to "jump out" at you.

      Different strokes for different folks and all that.

  • I have not heard about this game in years! I know the answer (took me an overnight sleep to arrive at the answer), so I will keep quiet while others hammer it out (unless you specifically want me to speak up).

    Wow, thought I was the only one who remembered this...

  • Because I had no clue. But then I got it, thanks to the giant hint you gave. I can see how a smart person would get trapped into looking for patterns.
  • does that mean I am dumb?

    I think your hints were too good.

  • FKs 'rules' are a dead giveaway. :) If you do it with only "guess how many petals are around the rose" it can take longer....

  • Fun (Score:2)

    by ryanr ( 30917 ) *
    Hadn't seen that before. It took me several minutes to figure out.
  • I didn't read your hints and went straight to the site. I had guessed the rules by the time I was done reading the instructions.
  • it took me 20 minutes to figure this out... I'm either rather creative in my thinking... or just dumber than a box of rocks.

    Yes, the name, significant... in fact... if think visually... it shouldn't be that difficult to get.
    • Grr... me too, it took me 25 tries. I even had a very complex algorithm figured out that depended on placement of the odd dice. I thought everything hinged on where the 3s turned up because every time I had a roll with no threes the answer was 0. Once I was sure of my algorithm and started getting answers right, I got a roll with no 3s whose answer was 4 and it blasted me out of the water. Then I started thinking about the name of the game and different variations of the actual answer. Thanks a LOT, FK


  • Gods, do i feel better. For a moment there, i thought i was losing my touch.

    i know that won't help anyone who's really stuck, but c'mon, i'm a poet. I won't give it away because you'll feel REALLY, REALLY good when you get it- and reading mr. gates' story helped, because while i skipped most of it, it was when i saw the words 'pedals around the rose'- FK, i'm not saying any more than you linked to- that i realised what it was.

    approximately 1 minute 10 seconds of furious thought, followed by 30 seconds of
  • I guess I'm not creative at all.
  • I've noticed that when you mention that smart people have a much tougher time figuring it out, then you more or less eliminate that from being true.

    By saying that, it makes people realize that the answer can't be that complex, allowing them to really narrow the possibilities that they look at.

    When I first saw it (on Metafilter), it took me three rolls. Then I got it. I got it so quickly because I knew the answer had to be very simple and practically staring you in the face, and that's so much informatio

  • Hmmm (Score:2)

    by btlzu2 ( 99039 ) *
    3 tries and I had it. You just know not to complicate it cuz that's what they want you to do.

    KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid

    So I guess I'm stupid! :) Then again, FK, you're probably a logical thinker [slashdot.org] while I'm a musical thinker [slashdot.org]. I heard the song of the petals in my head and I got it! :)
    • I took the test.... Interpersonal Thinker? Wow... never expected that... Although when I think about it, I'm more likely to be the one explaining heavy duty IT stuff to a laymans audience and I've always wanted to be a teacher...
  • Tried out the Flash version and got it right away. I am either a genius or very lucky.
  • I became a Potentate of the Rose back in 1997 or 1998. Lloyd Borrett (owner of the page with the bg story) introduced me to the game at a web developer conference way back when.

    From memory it took about 10 minutes for me to work it out.
  • You suck FK. And so do all the rest of you that "get it"

    Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

    jason
  • Saw this in Junior High. The teacher had stumped us all. Then I remembered that I had this stupid BASIC program on a floppy from back in elementary school, so I loaded it up on my Apple IIc and played it for a while on my own, to try to figure it out. Then I got impatient so I did a "list" command (or whatever it was to see the source code of the program -- how many years has it been since I saw/programmed in BASIC?!), and read the explanations it had for when people solved the "puzzle."

    So I guess I reall
    • Ah, my method of solving problems.

      For example, a friend of mine wanted me to win at the 'pearls' game (5 rows of 6 pearls, take up to 6 from any... something like that, anyway). Send me an online link. Got annoyed at it. Loaded 2 copies and made one 'fight' the other.

  • I think that many of you gave it away by discussing it too much. I feel dumber than a sack of rocks for not getting it earlier. It took me about 45-50 minutes.
  • no idea how many there were before. 4? whatever. took me 10 rolls. i'm an idiot :-(
  • I looked at the Bill Gates story first and figured it out. I think if I'd done the game first, it would have happened faster. :)
  • Unfortunately couldn't play with the flash version, because I've got no flash. But I managed to figure it out from the "Bill Gates is a robot" story, after a couple of minutes. I'm adamant I'd have figured it out quicker if I'd realised from the beginning that the "tops" of the dice were supposed to be the faces facing towards me rather than the faces facing the top of the screen. If you see what I mean. I can be a bit literal sometimes.

    Hearing what the things they were allowed to say were put me on the ri

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