Count the petals...

[Thinker]

http://personal.baker.edu/web2/cdavis09/roses.html

Probably, this is not the right forum, but since things changed around this place, this is where I put it...

The solution is very simple.  So simple that the smarter you are, and the better educated, the harder it is to figure out.

[Orstio]

Well, I got it, but it took ~10 tries before I saw the pattern.   

[Astronuc]

This thread probably belongs under Everything Mathematics.

I think the question is grammatically incorrect or at least somewhat misleading - 'rose' should be written as 'roses'.

BTW, those are rather odd looking roses.   

[Thinker]

Took me about 10 or 12 tries and 4 approaches before I figured it out. (it would have been a bit quicker but one of the wrong approaches, purely by chance, gave correct answers 3 times out of 5). On the site I lifted the link from, some of the people there struggled with this thing for hours - and they were the bright sorts the other members of that board would turn to for things like legal advice and `how to deal with this computer problem'.

[Orstio]

It requires a different aspect of intelligence:  intuition.  You first have to figure out which question you need to ask before you can start systematically excluding any logical system.  There really is no logical way to figure out which question you need to ask, it's just intuitive.

[remcook]

I did it in one go. But that's because it reminded me about something similar, but then with polar bears

[Astronuc]

Not only intuition, but context.  It's a bit like those aptitude tests and word analogies.  Sometimes there can be more than one answer depending on nuances of language.

[cassiopeiae]

ok...I've been at it for 2 days now (not consecutively, of course)  I must be really stupid...I'm usually pretty good at these things!!!   *insert beating head against brick wall gif here*

[Thinker]

ok...I've been at it for 2 days now (not consecutively, of course)  I must be really stupid...I'm usually pretty good at these things!!!   *insert beating head against brick wall gif here*

No.  Not at all.  What you are doing is trying solutions that are far too complex for this.  The math skills involved are within the capability of a 2nd grader (actually, a elementary school teacher on another board uses this to teach her kids basic math).

That said, this is more `trick' than ought else.

[Sarah90]

Easy for you lot to say...I'm still waiting for the piccie of the rose...Sigh      plays  whilst waiting... ... ...

[Rxke]

Once you figure it out...It should indeed be 'roses', IMO....  (But then again, I'm Dutch-speaking, so i may be biased...)

OTOH...  "Dr. Duke used to begin each of his gaming/simulation courses with this exercise"

So he's a Dr., gives lessons in gaming/sims... and it took him one year to figure this out ? ? ? Wow...