School Holds Rock-Paper-Scissors Contest

The Associated Press ^ | Thu May 29

[presidio9]

Rock smashes scissors. Paper covers rock. Scissors cut paper.

Student insists there's a deeper meaning.

Thomas Shaffer, who organized a rock-paper-scissors tournament at his high school, says the game is based on patterns, so the odds of winning increase when a player better observes his opponent.

"At first I was one of the believers that it is a game of luck," Shaffer said. "I'll let you in on a little secret: Most people open with scissors. Novice players rarely throw the same thing twice in a row."

Shaffer recruited 75 classmates at Elizabethtown Area High School to compete, got the school to let him hold the contest in the gym and even convinced a sponsor to donate money for trophies. A dairy donated chocolate milk.

Shaffer managed to back up his bluster about the game's intricacies, making the final round by winning 19 matches in a row.

But in the end, he lost to Jeff Leggett.

"It's not about luck," Leggett said. "It's about being on your game. Some days you can't pick up patterns."

Shaffer is scheduled to graduate next week, but Leggett, a junior, said he will organize next year's tournament.

[annyokie]

These kids need to take a statistics class and learn about the laws of probablity.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Poker is a game of probability too, however, there is a lot more to poker than just statistics.

[Billthedrill]

Waste of time. Why these kids can't learn about real bluffing by playing poker in the boys' room like we did I just don't know...

[annyokie]

Sure. I know a card-counter who was banned from the casinos in Las Vegas.

[monkey]

"I'll let you in on a little secret: Most people open with scissors. Novice players rarely throw the same thing twice in a row."

Rock, Paper, Scissors is a formal system, but undoubtedly people assign meanings to their choices (Rock is a solid answer, Paper is weak/risky, Scissors is a safe, middle choice). It would be interesting to see some analysis of people's choices, but it doesn't appear they kept any stats (it's school, after all).

[wbill]

Sigh...

I thought that this was going to be interesting. Maybe some type of study showing preferences, maybe some statistical analysis.....you know, stuff that kids could really learn from.......

As in, "after analyzing all of the games, statisically, the likelihood of 'scissors' was xxx, 'rock' was xxx, and paper was 'xxx'. Maybe do some physics on how much force it takes for rock to crush scissors. You know, fun stuff, where kids might actually learn something.

But nooooo. Just typical public skool crud.

[ctlpdad]

when playing, and losing to my brother, i brough out the fourth, the gun. I said "bang, you're dead", and won.
we still laugh about that to this day.

[cinFLA]

These kids need to take a statistics class and learn about the laws of probablity.

Human behaviour throws out the statistics.

[Drango]

Sometimes I wish that public schools would just stick to the basics. You know, like putting a condom on a banana.

[Liberal Classic]

Tomorrow kids, we will play Duck, Duck, Duck, Duck, Duck, Duck, Duck.

[annyokie]

I'm talking about the coin toss exercise and other statistical exercises. There is an opportunity for these kids to learn something useful.

I never thought I'd use algebra either, but I have at the lumber yard many times.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The correct name is "Jon-Ken-Poi."

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

If he was a card counter he was playing Black Jack, which IS purely a game of proability.

[lonestar]

I'm pleasantly surprised that the kids would be interested in a game that doesn't require a lot of money spent on "toys with bells and whistles."

I see videos and commercials and wonder if they are geared to the attention span of most teenagers.

[weegee]

Actually I believe that novices open with "ROCK" because they don't need to shape their hand from the "masked" shape used in counting and because of the belief that a "ROCK" is a hard object.

[weegee]

Maybe the kids could play One Of The Things Is Not Like The Other:

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