Why does paper beat rock

They can all blunder in one way or another; it's wonder that people usually never think of these when playing the game. It should be rock, scissors, dynamite with cuttable wick Demitri Martin said that not me.

It's simple, it is something people call 'out of sight, out of mind'. When the paper covers the rock the player controlling the rock simply forgets it's there whenever they can't see it.

Therefore it is much harder than the rock. Now i ask: Is the paper magically going to wrap itself around the rock? Paper against rock beats rock because it covers more of the rock than the rock covers the paper. Mind you, I mean papers the size of your hand. A hand balled into a fist will always be smaller than that hand when the palm is spread out.

Is the paper meant to somehow magically 'wrap around' the rock hence rendering it immobile? Don't know why this ancient debate appeared on home page, but here's my answer. Change profile picture. Back to the action! Create Your Free Account. Sign Up Login. Debates People. You can share this debate in three different ways:. Click here to send this debate via your default email application. Click here to login and CreateDebate will send an email for you. How the hell does paper beat rock in a game of rock, paper, scissors It's totally understandable that scissors can beat paper, and that rock can beat scissors Support Dispute Clarify.

Please Sir , Master of Discriminatory Humor , please don't turn me into a frog or anything else un natural, but I must ask of you this one question: When are you going to grow up? If anybody ever asks you to retire, tell me first; I'll deal with them! But people do not play randomly — they follow hidden patterns that you can predict to win more games than you should, a study has revealed. Although it is called different names in different places, the rules of the game are the generally same in every country.

It is an important part of making friends with Japanese people — so you should really learn the nuances of how the Japanese play. Helpful tips. How does paper beat a rock? What does paper mean in Rock Paper Scissors? Why does paper cover rock in Rock Paper Scissors? Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Does paper beat rock in RPS due an ancient Chinese tradition that draping paper over rock mean rejecting a request? Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 6 months ago. Active 7 years, 6 months ago. Viewed 1k times. I have heard a few times that paper beats rock in rock-paper-scissors due to the following reason : It comes from an ancient Chinese tradition where when a request was sent to the ruler on a piece of "paper" or the equivalent at the time, the rock was placed over the paper if the request was accepted, the paper was draped over the rock, indicating defeat of the request, if the request was rejected.

How true is it? Improve this question. Flimzy Franck Dernoncourt Franck Dernoncourt 6, 3 3 gold badges 30 30 silver badges 72 72 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Bobson Bobson 3, 24 24 silver badges 27 27 bronze badges. I don't think either answers. It is up to the reader to decide if it is reliable or not.