Winning at Rock Paper Scissors - Numberphile 

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Feel for you bruv

youre the real winner

Down horrendous

Damn dude ... you made my day.

Yup. This is when you go down the mindgame rabbit hole. The "what if" never ends. Thats why I try to play what I think is the most risky choice. I open up with paper. most people don't expect it. If I'm playing a person who is as tricky as me, I'll open up with scissors cause if they are strategic, they may choose paper.

it will become into a cycle

How on earth would picking paper at first be unexpected? There's only 3 choices.

David Vanderhoeven It's an unspoken rule that paper is the least played sign, even more so on the first turn. Goes like 45% Scissor 35% Rock 20% Paper. Scissor is the default choice for most people. Paper is the last resort.

Most casuals never open with paper, which means people who try to beat the casuals always open with rock to minimize their chance of losing on first round. People trying to next level casual beaters, open with paper.

Plot twist: there is no science about this. Its completely random and it depends only on luck/bad luck.

Felipe Michel there is a science behind this when humans play this game. There is literally Rock Paper Scissors tournaments, and the best players consistently win. If you have the same people winning every time it can’t be random. If someone consistently won the jackpot for the lottery it would be because he figured out how to beat it. Of course that doesn’t happen because the lottery is random.

Given the 3M views, I’d say that’s likely :)

Lesson being, allways make the same play: On three, kick the opponent in the shin and run.

Just pick one forever and eventually you'll have a 33% wi rate at least.

That's what Bart Simpson did one time...

paper feels weak. Even scissors is more interesting since it's got a blade

meta abuser

Honestly, bring an actual rock and piece of paper to the game and always choose rock. Then, when your opponent chooses paper, demonstrate how easily a rock can punch a hole in a piece of paper.

Princess bride logic I see 😂

@ambassador yeah I used way too much brain power for that game

Just a regular chess player moment

wow you must be very predictable lol

When you try to be smart and tell your friend you gonna play paper to throw him off Now you confuse yourself And tie 15 straight Yeah definetly didnt happened

+Tohob #TeamRock

+Tohob Rock has metamorphic properties. You can always mulligan into scissors if your fingers are fast enough, and play it off like you have slow fingers.

I always go paper first because most of people go rock first.

#TeamLizard

Plus, if they play paper, you can punch them square in the jaw. Tell the responding police officer, they had paper, it SHOULD have protected them. Clearly, Rock beats paper AND scissors!

Imagine you were playing rock paper scissors with your best friend and they just smash your fingers to pieces

Semm

@@ZeboMobile bold of you to assume I have friends

How about the fingers being snipped off

Then Terry Gilliam animations would terrify you

6 years?! Wow, that person and job must be very memorable for you. This also sounds like it would be an episode of The Office!

Mayne he's getting used to you picking rock so one day he can wager something HUGE, and then beat you with paper.

@@amerikagaijin the long con

@@amerikagaijin But imagine choosing paper, attempting to outsmart him when that time finally comes only to lose against... fricking scissors.

@@ivocorte1580 lol! That would be great!

thanks, i missed it

hahaha why

They're in China, so yeah

@@memelissa7169 it's not that deep

@@FEScarf The real reason they're sad is you haven't uploaded the next letter yet

MrDeeb8 true hahaha

MrDeeb8 underrated comment

Punchline! Nailed it! xD

Wtf 😥😖

Why would you take that away from me so abruptly?

Except METAL

Classical does:)

Spock beats Rock. ;-) (Well, technically it's "vaporizes" but still.)

Scissors cuts a hole in the paper at the last second…Scissors win

@@irrelevant_noob I forget the justification for a lizard beating spock

I always thought it produced scissors. And it always does so...

Omar Goodman I got it, in like 5 seconds

But you're also usually accustomed to saying rock paper and scissors last so you might reflexively throw in a scissor first

+Longnall Sapuel Everytime i played we said scissors, paper, rock

Ha

Go for rock first. At the third time, reverse. Go for Win-Tie situations rather than Win-Lose or Tie-Lose. Avoid looking up RPS-101. Cheating through perception is always an option.

In other words, go R, S, P, R, S, P, R, S etc. forever without even paying attention to what happened last round

No, go R, E, S, P, E, C, T.

@@unic0de-yvr seeing as rock is the most popular, I go P,R,S

JBehnen is this a new version of Sheldon’s Rock Paper Scissors lizard Spock?

Inconceivable!

What's the trophy look like?

@@christopherwellman2364maybe you get ticket to rock concert, diploma and scissors just for fun

@@Donbros idk but I like that idea

H O L Y S H I T

Can't stop laughing. Don't know why

Paradigm shift

DAMN🤣🤣🤣

Jojo reference?

ZiVazier Actually, often these are psychological wars and mind games playing about. Just because you know this "tactic" doesn't mean you will win. In games like RPS, you have to be smart. You really can't use the tip in the video on anyone, say that they heard the same tip that you just did? That means you have to find your own pattern. P.S. seeming to not have a pattern to confuse your opponent is also a skill. Haha!

i say that i'll do rock, then they think that i'll do something else like paper or scissors, so they do paper or rock, if they do paper, i lose and i say "at least i say the truth" if they do scissors and i win, i'll repeat that 1-2 times, then i'll say that i will do scissors, but i'll make paper, they will be confused and i'll continue like that 1-2 times more, then i'll switch tactics again. if you play 10 times, its guaranteed that you'll win at least 7 of them

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. ~Sun Tzu, Art of War

the most obvious common sense to ever be common

Actually i read the study and its says men will play rock 90 percent of the time as their opener.

This is untrue because most people play rock on their first throw.

Will Smith and Margot Robbie made a movie about that assumption

@@siderealbeast Wait, The diversion movie thing was about Rock Paper Scissors? Why'd nobody tell me that?

In Germany we go "Scissors Rock Paper", so it'd be interesting to see if there was any statistical difference there

nope its causes a paradox which may result in unraveling the fabric of time space

Not really, maybe another person won and the one in front of you is a illusion. You can't know...

So? Pretty much the same when you try to prove in geometry. like the reflexive property .

Geeky Vors n

Why did You write this?

Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!

"60%of the time, it works every time"... 😂😂😂😂

Ah, a portal reference

@@sumans7620 is it? I thought it was a Ron Burgundy reference...

@@sumans7620 no

So it doesn't work everytime😭

😂

Someone had to say it

Man of culture.

I'd be a mess.

Try school

You're a moron.

@@petenjs3500 Calm down, genius

@@JorgeRodriguez-xx8vx Calm down, moron.

LOLLLL

@@petenjs3500 r/woooosh

***** check the extra footage at Numberphile2

Numberphile Haha, I knew you would include it somewhere :)

Numberphile what about rock paper scissors lizard spock spiderman batman wizard glock?

What about RPS 101?

***** I have a 27 way version. it has dragon and volcano and 22 other great things. or maybe its 21 way and there are 16 other things

Hazem Hassan but what if you know that they know that you know!?

Numberphile Illuminati comfirmed!

Numberphile But what if they know that?

Numberphile Yes, RPS is rooted in complex game psychology. /sarcasm

Numberphile Then you know that they know that you know that they know that you know!

Chickenking17 Can't win if you have no one to play with

Savage lol

Life hacks.

@@quasquaswex4430 That hurts a lot

Oh no

They were both poisoned.

***** He actually did solve it. "You've beaten my giant, which means you're exceptionally strong, so you could've put the poison in your own goblet, trusting on your strength to save you" It's technically what he did.

Well that's why you clink glasses so that both splash into one another - either you both die or non of you. Combine that with the rule of the host drinking first to maximize your chances for this. Now, it one of you is allergic to something the other isn't, you shouldn't drink anything at all. Same goes if there is poisen the other could have used the anti-poisen on himself. ... You know what, I'll eat all by myself from now on.

This might be the best comment I've ever read.

This has to become a copypasta.

That’s what I was thinking. If they figure out your strategy, it’s useless

@@Vern01 well if they also know this strategy then it's likely they'd only be certain you also know it after 3 goes. So if you start off winning, then they choose what your last move was twice (and also lose twice) then by the 4th move they'd think they need to shift to playing what you just played, essentially reversing the rules, so you can one up them and play what wasn't played last round. After that just call it quits

elliest 55 now that would be next level

They should have made an special video

yeah....... they lost 1 after this video...

Very handy.

My left one won

Dr Fry does have the most mellifluous voice.

Ahaahhahahahhahahaahhahaahaahahahahahhaahhahahahahahahahahah I laughed way too hard at this! XD

Yash Agarwal loser

+Eazy that was unnecessarily mean. There's no need for name-calling when comments are made in jest... especially not on a numberphile video.

I think your real advantage on the rest of humanity is that you're watching math videos on RU-vid.

*laughs in foreign language*

Kodlaken I watched this video to see if this came up in the comments.

Thank you Dr Cooper

@@buybymail i love girls handwriting 1:54

I am sorry can you please repeat again?😂

Now that's a game I can behind.

***** Which is essentially what I said above : D

You are making a fallacy fallacy, disregarding the general behavior of people which has been supported by statistical evidence is unreasonable and irrational. Someday, if you keep on studying philosophy, you will understand that fallacies don't disprove an argument and that fallacies are not equivalent with lies. For example, say you go to the doctor and he tells you something which you repeat to your friend. He will accuse you of making a blind loyalty fallacy because you trust someone in a position of authority. This does not make you wrong, and in fact you will probably be right if you trust the doctor. You see what I mean?

Frankotronify As someone who studied epistemology in undergrand, THANK YOU! I am kind of sick of the people who have the fallacy table always pulled up in a second tab, thinking they are doing the world some justice by "disproving" everyone's arguments.

You're right, you should definitely consider the new/individual information acquired each additional round and then adjust your strategy. But if your opponent plays similar to the average player (which is of course most likely), these 'new' informations won't be that valuable.

Frankotronify I don't recall saying this was a lie, only that the scope of the argument is limited, and based on a logical fallacy, ie: the assumption that a particular individual will be represented by group data. Playing this strategy beyond the second turn results in a unbalanced game state that will quickly revert to the standard random 1/3 nash equilbrium solution. In addition, by adding in the information presented in the video, either both players are aware of these tendencies, and will work to remove the flaw in their games and be aware of the other person doing so as well, resulting in standard R-P-S game play or we are playing a new game of imperfect and unbalanced information that only casually resembles R-P-S, though multiple iterations will still end up being the same game. Mr. Pants, Thank you for the condescension, but some of us can actually identify fallacious arguments without reference material. This is a mathematics channel, and the information being presented is expected to have a mathematically provable, and thus logically sound, base. Standard logical arguments can be rendered as equations, with fallacies resulting in an error. Calling attention to such a fallacy is not: "thinking they are doing the world some justice by "disproving" everyone's arguments. " though I would enjoy your oh-so-studied epistomological review of which common internet fallacy you are indulging in here : D

"Congratulations, you just played yourself."

but that's just a theory... a GAME THEORY!

The Game Theorists They calling you out with rock paper scissors.

mitchelnext1 Thanks for watching!

***** tis mere banter my friend

mitchelnext1 Damn those game theory-ist and there materialistic manta!

Definitely getting a Gilliam vibe

Maybe ASMR?

I h8 tht sound

Formally stating the strategy makes it look very genius, but all it is, is just 2 level deep thinking. So an average person would crack your algorithm within 2-3 rounds, max, because this is a very intuitive algorithm.

I think what they meant was you cant have any advantage with any strategy against a computer... do whatever you want.

If you picked just one hand and kept on playing it, you'd end up winning 1/3 of the times.

Hey Zogg nice to see you! Same (kind of) question as above , do you plan to post a new episode soon?

Depends how narrow you define "soon".

Correct. If your opponent chooses randomly, there is no dominant strategy. Dominant strategies only exist when there's bias. That is, any information you have about your opponent's bias gives you some advantage. Just don't let them know how you plan to use that information, or the same effect applies in reverse.

Plz Zogg make a episode

***** 360 no scope?

Tilen Medved ninja defuse

Tilen Medved 2 pi no scope

The average person, apparently. You obviously have to determine whether or not your opponent is an "average person" or not for these methods to work. You might need to think 2 or 3 steps forward if your opponent knows what they're doing.

if you think about it, maybe you won't do it, but if you're not playing "with a strategy" and just for fun, you might do it without knowing it

No, they did it to have statistical evidence.

***** when it comes to rock-paper-scissor, yes

Well you probably play differently as you age I imagine...

300 people for two hours... think of how many instances of "rock paper scissors" happened. I understand the need for lots of data, but that seems a bit over the top.

***** 54,000 instances. There are two students per round.

Too bad the show creator is trapped in plagiarism issues. The show is great. The Shiritori game with Jibril was the best anime experience I ever had.

Science is just empiricism.

Berzerius "Lithosphere!" Everything after was pure genius. Actually, everything was genius after he said "atom bomb".

Don't want to sound like a douche but i came up with this tactic when i was a kid to exploit it against my friends so it's not that complex. The difference is that this study got it rationalised and backed it up with actual data.

Please don't reference anime that just involve the protagonist always coming out on top. Such anime are usually drab... as was NGNL

it is

Pretty quickly...I mean it's obvious after few plays

Most humans go for scissors first, because they DO want to change the position of their fingers ("going commando" with rock doesn't feel right), but spreading all fingers for paper triggers the instinctive fear of leaving your defenses open. Scissors is the only left out, and I have indeed experienced a lot of people going scissors first.

Fons the Magnificient I think people usually pick scissors because we say the word scissors as we choose.

+Denise A Wright here in australia we say 'scissors paper rock' instead of 'rock paper scissors', and yet majority of people go scissors first. Maybe it does have an impact but probably not a big one.

The problem is guessing where the other person stops,

Haha yeah! Restricted RPS makes it so much more intense! I would've just waited the losers out and sell my cards but meh, if the main characters were really smart they wouldn't be in their situations anyways, so I like it better this way!

Poor, predictable Raphael deLaghetto

Ha,ha! That cracks me up!!

that makes no sense. if you played rock so then they play paper how does rock beat paper