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Can You Win Rock Paper Scissors?

ISEF · 2023 Behavioral and Social Sciences

Boyd, Elliott · Stuttgart High School

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Overview

Have you ever played Rock, Paper, Scissors, it’s a very elementary game often used to make a quick decision. “Who has to do the dishes?” or “Who gets to eat the last cookie?”. But can you win this game of chance? I set out to find the answer to this question. To do this I played 200 games of rock paper scissors with 20 different people. I played half of the games with each person using a random number generator (RNG) to pick Rock, Paper, or Scissors. I played the other half of the games using a simple strategy to see if you can beat the odds and win more often using a strategy. The strategy is called the Zhejiang Cycle(ZJC). Using the strategy, I won only 3 more games out of the 200, which is not a significant enough difference to conclude that the strategy is better. So you cannot win Rock, Paper, Scissors with this type of strategy.

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Source: Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair

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