mscroggs.co.uk
mscroggs.co.uk

subscribe

Comment

Comments

Comments in green were written by me. Comments in blue were not written by me.
Hello Matthew Scroggs, I was wondering if it would be possible to make a "menace" with the game chopsticks? If you don't know what chopsticks is, then here are the rules listed on Wikipedia
Each player uses both hands to play the game, the number of fingers extended on a hand shows the number of points that the hand has.

Both players start with each hand having one point — one finger extended on each hand.

The goal of the game is for a player to force their opponent to extend all of their fingers and thumbs on both hands or to force the player to extend all their fingers and thumb and one hand if their other hand is already out. The score has to be exactly five. If the resulting number is more than five, the player is not out no matter what. For example, if a hand with 4 points is tapped by a hand with 2 points, the hand with 4 points becomes a hand with 1 point. This rule is called a 'roll over'.

Players take turns to tap their live hand(s) against another live hand (either their own other hand or one of their opponent's).

You can tap any live hand per turn, but only one

The number of points on the tapping hand is added to the number on the tapped hand, and the player with the tapped hand extends their digits to show the new score. The tapping hand remains unchanged.

A player may tap their two hands together to transfer points from one hand to the other. This is called a split. If a player has one hand out (0 fingers) and two fingers, on the other hand, they could split to have one finger on each hand. (This counts as a turn).You are not allowed to "swap hands" or switch the number of fingers between hands without splitting (going from 4 on one hand and 2 on the other to 2 on one hand and 4 on the other).
               
@JT: Yes, you could. You need a matchbox for each possible combination of fingers on the players' hands, an beads in each box for each move that could be made in that position.

When I have some time, I'll have a go a write a javascript version of it...
Matthew
on /blog/19
               
@Matthew: where do you buy your matchboxes at? Because I need 1296 and the best deal I have found is 1300 for $147.57 two packs of 500 for $49.65 each and three packs of 100 for $16.09 each.
               
@JT: correction, the best deal I have found is $120.48
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F6PY9XF/r...
               
@JT: I bought "craft matchboxes" (without the matches inside), but it looks like your bulk normals ones work out cheapers.
Matthew
on /blog/19
               
@Matthew: would it still work with the "roll over" rule? or would that just make it run out?
               
@Matthew: Thank you so much, could you email me a link for it once you make it.
               

Archive

Show me a random blog post
 2025 

Mar 2025

How to write a crossnumber

Jan 2025

Christmas (2024) is over
Friendly squares
 2024 
▼ show ▼
 2023 
▼ show ▼
 2022 
▼ show ▼
 2021 
▼ show ▼
 2020 
▼ show ▼
 2019 
▼ show ▼
 2018 
▼ show ▼
 2017 
▼ show ▼
 2016 
▼ show ▼
 2015 
▼ show ▼
 2014 
▼ show ▼
 2013 
▼ show ▼
 2012 
▼ show ▼

Tags

craft arithmetic games convergence logs frobel dragon curves preconditioning friendly squares mean martin gardner misleading statistics matrices harriss spiral graph theory golden spiral game show probability phd anscombe's quartet folding tube maps python ternary mathsteroids people maths matt parker fonts probability php weather station christmas puzzles datasaurus dozen royal institution stirling numbers radio 4 guest posts mathsjam mathslogicbot video games news platonic solids gerry anderson crossnumbers inline code chess flexagons hannah fry correlation rhombicuboctahedron light pizza cutting crosswords data zines errors newcastle logo weak imposition finite group pascal's triangle wool turtles dataset polynomials reddit sobolev spaces manchester science festival coins chalkdust magazine cross stitch world cup noughts and crosses quadrilaterals national lottery matrix of minors programming numerical analysis draughts accuracy tennis data visualisation computational complexity raspberry pi machine learning standard deviation stickers final fantasy a gamut of games rugby kings chebyshev hexapawn countdown go boundary element methods golden ratio map projections christmas card geometry estimation 24 hour maths wave scattering captain scarlet bempp pi hyperbolic surfaces propositional calculus fence posts youtube oeis talking maths in public braiding matrix multiplication trigonometry curvature hats the aperiodical pac-man reuleaux polygons signorini conditions london pythagoras gaussian elimination gather town pi approximation day advent calendar fractals geogebra big internet math-off realhats binary manchester game of life bubble bobble inverse matrices error bars dates palindromes runge's phenomenon graphs determinants crossnumber matrix of cofactors football royal baby speed javascript menace recursion interpolation sport electromagnetic field regular expressions numbers logic latex london underground ucl asteroids crochet sound tmip exponential growth bodmas bots databet dinosaurs sorting live stream european cup simultaneous equations nine men's morris books finite element method statistics plastic ratio edinburgh approximation folding paper squares cambridge triangles

Archive

Show me a random blog post
▼ show ▼
© Matthew Scroggs 2012–2025