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Mating Games and Lizards
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| Ivars Peterson (MathLand) | |
| Is there a winning strategy for the game Scissors-Paper-Rock? It certainly doesn't make sense to show the same configuration each time. An alert opponent would quickly learn to anticipate your move, make the appropriate response, and always win. A similar danger lies in following any kind of pattern. Thus, unless you can find a flaw in your opponent's play, your best bet is to mix the three choices in a random manner. Of course, this isn't a completely satisfying result. If you stick to a strategy of random choices, your opponent can't profit. But then, you can't profit from your opponent's mistakes either. Curiously, the scissors-paper-rock game has a counterpart in the mating rituals of a certain species of lizard native to California. Instead of just one mating strategy, these lizards have three, distinct types of behavior that constantly compete with one another in a perpetual cycle of dominance. | |
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| Levels: | High School (9-12), College |
| Languages: | English |
| Resource Types: | Problems/Puzzles, Articles |
| Math Topics: | Probability, Animal Biology |
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