October 16, 2005

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Petals Around The Rose

Petals Around The Rose is a puzzle game. The way the game works is that one rolls five six-sided dice, and then one is supposed to figure out the numerical answer to that roll based on the outcome of the dice roll.

The game master, in this case me, may only tell you three things:

  1. The name of the game is Petals Around The Rose, and that name is important.
  2. The answer will always be an even number.
  3. I (or anyone who has solved it) can give you the answer to any roll, almost instantly (within a couple seconds).

For instance, the answer on the following roll is 8.

On this roll, the answer is 4.

This answer is 6.

This answer is 8.

Any of these three links will allow you to see more rolls and their answers, and to check your theories.

See if you can figure it out. As the story goes, the smarter you are, the longer it will take you to figure it out. Then read this story about what happened when Bill Gates was introduced to the game in 1977.

Posted at October 16, 2005 10:06 PM | Comments (4)


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Wow. I got it in, like, two minutes. I guess that means I'm an idiot :)

Posted by: Jeff at October 17, 2005 5:04 PM


This game is a complete waste of time. Instead you should take the political compass test (http://politicalcompass.org/), as David and I did after playing this game. I am -3.5 on the economic scale and -.46 on the social scale, making me a moderate centrist. You can ask David what he was (hint hint: Left-winger).

-Z-

Posted by: Zeeshan at October 17, 2005 5:19 PM


I was around -3.5 economically, and -8.9 socially.

And yeah, Jeff... I got it after looking at just two dice rolls = ~10 seconds. I was like, man, I must be really dumb. The reality is that it probably just takes less time if you're able to think creatively, or perhaps it takes longer the more confidence and eagerness you have in your analytical ability.

Posted by: David Barzelay at October 17, 2005 9:01 PM


Yeah, I'm not quite sure how to take that comment after figuring it out in not too long :P. I think it also depends on how much you pay attention to the 3 givens. . I know I normally just skim over them and try to get right to figuring it out.

Posted by: Karen at October 18, 2005 1:11 AM

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