posted
A little more than a minute, but I did get it. Now, this isn't really a hint, so I hope you don't mind - but if you read the instructions it says that the game can be played with five dice on a table. So that tells you something about some patterns that aren't relevant (as in, with five dice on a table there's no order of dice, no first or last.)
Posts: 97 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
It took me an hour to figure the damn thing out the first time I encountered it. Too smart, that's me.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
This is the third time this thread has been posted, to the best of my recollection. The first time around, a fair number of people -- especially our engineers and math majors -- had serious trouble "solving" it; this new batch of Hatrackers must be smarter. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Meh. The whole "the smarter you are, the longer it takes" supposition was given by a professor who took a year to figure it out. If the engineers and math majors took longer than others I'd say it means they're overanalyzing it and ignoring the question.
Edit: okay, I've got it now. Talk about overthinking. It was the "requires basic math" part that threw me. Let's see, that took maybe ... half an hour.
posted
Ok, I appear to have gotten it, but it's a theory I tried several times before and didn't work. I'm so confused now.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
I remember this a long while back. When I first encounted it, I pondered it for about 20 minutes and couldn't figure it out. I later came back to it and was able to get it. It frustrated the heck out of me, though.
Posts: 1466 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
I would have never figured it out with out the instructions. "How you define the problem" "imagination" "smart people take longer".
So I decided to think like a dumb person (just kidding, just quit thinking tricky things like Soduko requires) and I finally got it in a few minutes.
Posts: 1209 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
[smart-assed insult] What do you mean, 'decided' to think like a dumb person? [/smart-assed insult]
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I just thought, ok, what does the author mean by "smart people take longer" and I decided he meant that they try and find a N solution (N = logical, whatever). So I wondered what a "dumb" person "with imagination" would think. It wasn't hard after that.
Posts: 1209 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
I've done this before and it didn't take me very long.
And it's not to do with smart-or-not its to do with your math-type skills. The more mathematical experience you have, the more you're likely to look in the wrong place for the answers. If you approach the problem with a very non-mathematical brain you're more likely to get the answer faster because you don't immediately go to that analytical style of thinking.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Spent two minutes, couldn't get it, read this thread, got it immediately. I'm not sure where the clue is in the this thread, but it did the trick.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
Did this in third grade. A teacher just rolled the dice for two or three minutes at the end of each class. Took about four or five class periods to get it.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Aha! Got it in about five minutes. I didn't time it, so I'm not sure of the exact time. Without giving it away, I suspected something like the answer from the first, but got sidetracked into the math. This is a cool game; I'm sure it would drive my husband crazy for hours.
posted
Took a couple seconds to run past a theory or two in my head, and then the first one I tried worked.
Posts: 879 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Well for you fast people there's no sense of accomplishment that I got from working on it every spare moment for three days then finally getting it.
Posts: 250 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
If the title was "petals around the rose(s)" I would have gotten it right away. My first guess was actually right, but because I was missing the plurality I got it wrong and went down other paths. It took me awhile to come back to that first theory.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
Ok, I'm very upset with all of you because you've managed to prevent me from doing my homework, but I finally got it, and felt like a retard. I ended up writing out 50 answers and doing statistical analysis. Thanks. Really.
Posts: 959 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
I second Katharina's statement. I was getting nowhere, then I read the thread, went back and got it first thing.
Posts: 2926 | Registered: Sep 2005
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But even the successfull theory was a guess. I still don't get it. But I figured it out. But I don't know how. And I can't explain it.
This is usually the type of problem that would take me days to figure out. The hints here all helped.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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