Friday, May 9, 2014

Never lose Rock, Paper, Scissors again

      You guys know the game rock, paper, scissors. You and one other player simultaneously choose a hand sign that represents rock, paper, or scissors. Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and paper beats rock.



       This game seems fair and it was believed to be fair because of the Nash Equilibrium. The Nash Equilibrium says that the game is fair because the players will tend to choose all three options equally. A study by China's Zhejiang University says otherwise. They found that players that win are more likely to choose the same thing in order to continue their winning streak. They also found that players that lose are more likely to choose the next one in the name. So if they lost with rock they would move to paper and if they lost again they would choose scissors.


     I think this is really cool. I will definitely use this against people in the future. It did cost them a lot of time and money to just decode a simple children's game. "Professional" Rock, Paper, Scissors players have also used this trick for years. I also realized that if both people try to use the trick it won't work for either of them and the game will be fair once again. I chose this article because I like using easy tricks to win at things that are supposed to be random like counting cards in black jack and this appealed to me.




Link dump:
http://www.dogonews.com/2014/5/5/scientists-reveal-a-fail-proof-strategy-to-win-rock-paper-scissors