This one is a Five

[nybiara]

If you're bored and like guessing games, try the Petals Around the Rose puzzle. Some people get it almost immediately, but if you're like me you'll waste substantial amounts of supervision work-time getting frustrated at it instead. Don't worry, I've worked it out now. But you're not safe yet. :P

Comments

[cartesiandaemon]

Oh god, I hate that :) I'm sure I had to work it out twice because I forgot totally in the years in between, and it seemed horribly teasing, and it SHOULD have been easy but...

[nybiara]

The reason it stumped me was that I misinterpreted "The name is significant!" as it having something complicated to do with Fibonacci numbers. *sigh*

[cartesiandaemon]

Yep, that sort of thing. The thing is, a simple scientific approach *should* solve it easily. I think I probably abstracted to numbers too soon -- even though I knew I shouldn't[1] -- and so kept missing the connection.

Do you get the "choose stocks with the fibonacci numbers" spam? :)

[1] I'm not Von Neumann, but it often *is* quicker if there's a general formula that's applicable that working out the clever trick which makes a problem trivial. So it's easy to get out of the habit of looking for the "shortcut" before you know the answer :)

[megamole]

Rather like Terry Pratchett's Plague of Frog?

[nybiara]

Indeed! I knew I wasn't being original, but I wasn't sure which author I'd got the line from. I should've guessed it was Pratchett. :)