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Petals Around the Rose

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Our Lady Has Left the Building

23:33 / 12.07.04

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah MOTHERFUCKER! I hate these things and it took me about fifteen minutes of scratching my head to work it out. I hate it, I hate you, I hate myself for taking so long to figure it out and I now need to hunt the git who invented this down and make him pay like a dog.

the cat's iao

23:40 / 12.07.04

Haha! Well, I had a nap, woke up, and came back to this. Opened the page, saw it all different & whammo! Got it straight off from the first roll. Interesting.

w1rebaby

23:53 / 12.07.04

Riiiiiight, I get it now. Must have been the beer.

Oddly enough, amongst my theories were several that were very similar... just not quite the same.

The Apple-Picker

00:01 / 13.07.04

Me too, Fridge! Well, I only had one theory that was similar, but you know.

No star here laces

01:32 / 13.07.04

It's Cass' clue number 2 that gives it away, and that isn't on the site.

Sax

06:10 / 13.07.04

Well, I still haven't got a fucking clue.

*Smashes game up and goes to get Monopoly*

Right. Who wants to be the top hat?

Sax

06:19 / 13.07.04

Hang on, I think I've sussed this.

Sax

06:30 / 13.07.04

No I haven't. Bastard.

Ariadne

06:33 / 13.07.04

duh, I'm a journalist, we're meant to be crap at numbery things. Therefore I should be good at this, yes? Well, I'm not.

pointless and uncalled for

06:34 / 13.07.04

Two theories, three rolls of the dice to confirm which theory applied.

I must admit that I was horrendously confused by reading this thread because I was mentally generating dice rolls and couldn't determine how extreme patterning would work in but then I read the article and it's very evident that there are two incredibly obvious theories.

Sadly only one is right but as you can test theories concurrently it doesn't take too long to check. To be honest I could have been right on the first throw but the scientist in me likes to be sure.

I'm quite impressed because I almost never get these things.

Jub

06:39 / 13.07.04

Dammit. Shouldn't have looked at this thread at work. Can't get it, and it keeps calling me when I should be working.

Sax

07:36 / 13.07.04

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Got it!

Spaniel

10:41 / 13.07.04

Yeah, Jefe, there is a big hint in the original post.

Jub

10:50 / 13.07.04

this is driving me crazy. is anyone else still stumped? Am half tempted to give in and find out what it's all about, but part of me want's to figure it out!

Jack The Bodiless

11:19 / 13.07.04

Got it in zero goes. By checking out the gamepage before trying. Because it's very, very easy. And, like PCUK, I never get these either, so I'm officially entitled to be smug as well. Not that I wouldn't have been smug if I wasn't officially entitled, because being smug is what Jack does best.

Glee!

pomegranate

13:12 / 13.07.04

i saw this some time ago, i even read some "explanation," and i STILL don't get it. can anyone hold my hand, and speak reeeally slowly, like i am a kindergartener, thx.

Cat Chant

13:25 / 13.07.04

I hate it, I hate you, I hate myself for taking so long to figure it out and I now need to hunt the git who invented this down and make him pay like a dog.

Yeah. How come there's not enough room in the little tick box to write "I DON'T KNOW, I DON'T CARE, AND I HATE YOU"?

This is going to be one of those irritating things where it's linguistic, not mathematical, isn't it? Like you have to work out how to define "petals" and "rose"? There is no rose! They're dice! If I want to know how many petals are on a rose I'LL LOOK AT A FUCKING ROSE!!

I hate chess, too.

pointless and uncalled for

13:32 / 13.07.04

Another excerpt from Deva's off-Broadway show "harsh logical extension"?

Sorry, I'm in a silly can't resist snippiness mood today.

■

13:53 / 13.07.04

about four goes. I assumed from the start that the numbers were pretty irrelevant, as these samrtarsery things always do that do distract you. I think your even numbers hint gave too much away, too.
This is pretty similar to the old Adventure Game "How many drognas round the pond" game that NO-ONE except Johnny Ball ever understood. He was my hero.
The other one is the game where you make some poor sap think you all think the same way by answering his questions yes or no depending on whether he ends the question with a vowel or consonant. I've seen fights break out over these games. It can turn very nasty.

Bomb The Past

14:04 / 13.07.04

It took me about ten seconds without rolling. So, following Dr. Duke's logic I must be a complete imbecile.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

15:14 / 13.07.04

Anyone who wants to know, PM me and I'll tell you.

Sekhmet

18:20 / 13.07.04

Blargh! I spent all evening yesterday banging my head on my keyboard and swore never to look at this again. Then today I gave into temptation, pulled up the page and figured it out in like two minutes.

Does that mean I was smarter yesterday? Did my enchilada dinner last night kill a bunch of brain cells? Or was it the Wolf Blitzer interview on the Daily Show?

I am so annoyed/relieved...

gravitybitch

18:36 / 13.07.04

Took me a little while, but I got it...

I definitely got stuck in doing all sorts of mathematical stuff; "there's five dice! how the hell can you guarantee that the number of petals will always be even??"

ephemerat

10:18 / 14.07.04

It's Cass' clue number 2 that gives it away, and that isn't on the site.

Ah. I'm going by the rules related in the article:

'The name of the game is Petals Around the Rose, and that name is significant. Newcomers to the game can be told that much. They can also be told that every answer is zero or an even number. They can also be told the answer for every throw of the dice that are used in the game. And that's all the information they get.'

Old skool, 1977-stylee. The actual gamepage was chosen (out of a host of Java applets, PHP-scripts and the like) because the page was relatively neutral - it didn't give any more information away - and I liked the Flash animation. Especially the clicky dice-rolling sound effect. Mmmm.

Jub

10:26 / 14.07.04

still can't get it.

And it really doesn;t help knowing that it's not some wied obscure thing - like the fourth dices dots minus the 2nd - only if it's a two etc etc.

I'm annoyed as I know I'm going to be kicking myself when (if) I ever figure it out!

Bear

10:31 / 14.07.04

I worked it out quite quickly because I thought (am) simple, your all far too clever it's making things complicated.

Grey Area

10:42 / 14.07.04

After spending two hours with pen and paper doing all sorts of calculations and patterns, scrounging around for five real dice and generally getting more and more frustrated...I started doodling. Then I got it. Whoever came up with this is now number one on my list of individuals to be taken behind the chemical sheds and beaten with reeds.

wembley can change in 28 days

11:07 / 14.07.04

*smacks forehead* I was going bonkers there, especially with no dice with which to play! But I rolled a die once in my head and got it.

wembley can change in 28 days

11:13 / 14.07.04

*smacks forehead again* you mean you had to click the link to play that game? Well, the theory I'd worked out in my head worked on first and subsequent goes anyway. So I must have invented the damned game!

I, Libertine

12:10 / 14.07.04

Bah! Silly puzzles don't measure your "smarts." They measure how good you are at solving silly puzzles.

(I still think this one is pretty clever, but I'm a gaming/simulation geek from way back. Dice are my bread and butter.)

crunch, crunch, crunch

luke hugh

12:41 / 14.07.04

I seem to get it right 50% of the time which is giving me trouble because yesterday I wasn't getting any right. Then at least I knew I was wrong in my thinking but now..... I don't know what to think.

invisible_al

13:55 / 14.07.04

Thank god for that, cracked it, took me about five goes at it over the last few days. Really glad I managed it on my own as fragile ego doesn't need a kicking

.
It doesn't actually help if you're crap at maths, as you assume you can't get it because your crap at maths.
*rumbles off to taunt more people with this evil puzzle*.

HCE

21:37 / 14.07.04

Took me about 15 rolls, but I was disappointed when I got it.

HCE

21:39 / 14.07.04

Oh, and those of you who got it in one -- how can you tell, in one? How do you know you didn't get it right by coincidence? I tried my theory out five or six times to make sure I wasn't getting it right by chance.

Olulabelle

21:44 / 14.07.04

Hahahaha.

Fred is right! How did you know?

BTW, In case anyone cares I have finally got it, but only because some very nice people helped me.

A lot.

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