Petals around the rose

[teach1st]

I play this game with my class, only I call it "Polar Bears Around the Ice Hole" (being very careful with my diction, of course).

http://crux.baker.edu/cdavis09/roses.html

Can you figure out how many petals around the rose?

[teach1st]

http://www.borrett.id.au/computing/petals-bg.htm

Bill Gates and Petals Around the Rose

It was June 1977, the very early days of the microcomputer industry. The founders of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, were amongst those heading home to Albuquerque from the National Computer Conference in Dallas. In the September/October 1977 edition of "Personal Computing" magazine, Henry Gilroy provided the following report on the introduction of the Petals Around the Rose brain teaser to his fellow travelers on the return journey.

Heading back to Albuquerque on a hot, humid Texas evening, the party from Personal Computing fell in with a gang from Microsoft. A couple of MITs folks were also in the crowd. Luckily, an ideal distraction for computer types was available.

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.

More (http://www.borrett.id.au/computing/petals-bg.htm)

[occam]

Great puzzle.

[moebius]

Got it! Very unorthadox solution, but does work every time. According to the accompanying website I suppose that I cannot divulge it.

Thanks for sharing.

[teach1st]

Got it! Very unorthadox solution, but does work every time.
No need. The articles about the puzzle maintain that the smarter you are, the longer it takes to solve the problem. You all got it quickly! ;)

[moebius]

Actually there are two possibles - a mathematical pattern and an algebraic solution which are related but both work using a different problem solving strategy.

[teach1st]

Actually there are two possibles - a mathematical pattern and an algebraic solution which both work.
Hmmm...PM me. I only know the pattern.

[teach1st]

I nominate moebius as the official math heavyweight on the Tuff board.

[moebius]

Gracias.

[justonemore]

I must be really dumb. I got it right every time.

[teach1st]

When we play in class, about four fifth graders get it within ten minutes, about half the class gets it after one-half hour, and four or five can never get it. Despite what the article says, and going only on what I've observed in my class, catching the pattern early does seem to be about intelligence, but not getting it does not correlate with intelligence. In other words, the kids who get it early are usually high functioning, but the kids who don't get it at all are a mix of abilities.

[justonemore]

Whew! That's good to know!!
You find some really neat stuff, Fred. Thanks for passing it along!