Games · interactive
Keep Them Guessing
Play Left or Right, or rock-paper-scissors, against a computer that notices your patterns. A mix chosen at random gives it nothing to copy.
Play
What the computer is doing
It keeps two counts. One is how often you have picked each choice. The other is what you usually play right after your last choice. It blends those counts and then plays the answer that beats the choice it thinks is coming. There is no secret list of students and no score is sent anywhere.
If you repeat yourself, the tally swings and the computer pulls ahead. If you mix with a coin, a die, or the random-move button, the two counts stay even and the computer’s guess is no better than chance. Turn on “Computer plays at random” and the same thing happens from the other side: a pattern of yours cannot pull ahead of a coin flip.
For ages 13 and up: where the lines cross
Suppose you are seeking a friend who hides in the kitchen or the attic. A find in the kitchen scores the first number of points; a find in the attic scores the second. If you always search one room, your friend hides in the other. The lines show your expected points if you search the kitchen with probability p.