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Comment by behnamoh | Hacker News Reader

The answer is lower left, but then again, you must be smart to understand that the other die is "6" not "9". This is ridiculous tbh.

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> The answer is lower left

Not from my perspective. I'm asked to pick a dice pair. I can't find any two dice that add up to 14.

Dice is plural, and common games have you roll two dice at a time. So you’re looking for a pair of pairs.

Oof, I’ve never heard anyone say “dice pair” to mean four dice.

Well, clearly you aren’t human then. Next!

Now that's terrible design.

> Dice is plural

It's also a descriptive label we use when discussing numbered cubes. In the captcha's context, that's the meaning I've fixed in place - while I parse the rest of the text.

I'm seeing hints that the captcha also comes with a short time clock along with the usual locked-account punishment for failure-to-solve. Fast assumptions seem appropriate.

Uh, no, when you describe a pair you use the plural. “Pair of pants”, “pair of earrings”, “pair of socks” — these phrases do not refer to four of something.

You are right, though "pair of pants" is somewhat problematical as an example of this!

Dice is plural. Die is the singular.

A pair of earrings.

Earrings is plural, earring is the singular.

I play board games and rpgs, so I spend a lot of time with dice and reading about dice. I don’t think I have ever heard a dice pair to reference multiple pairs of dice. My mind was looking for some weird die with a top higher than 6 since you need a pair that adds up to 14. Dice is plural but pair implies 2.

They should have said just the group of dice whose top sides sum to 14.

Your way of counting things will ensure you cannot solve this captcha I'm afraid.

I agree the wording is terrible, but at that point you should realize they're asking for the sum of all dices, not of any 2 dices.

> you should realize they're asking for the sum of all dices, not of any 2 dices.

How many assumptions have we piled onto the user-victim here? I've lost count.

It's dice pair, not die pair. That means 4 die.

Reading the post and OP's comment, I think he approaches it the wrong way and actually try to count when a quick glance would eliminate 4 out of 6 options. If you see 6+5+4 you just know it's too high or 1+2+2 is way to low. Not much serious counting needed.

However, that 6/9 really threw me off and came across as terrible design.

There's a line under the 6 for a reason. It tells you the correct orientation.

I was looking for that but the line isn't visible on my computer unless I zoom in far. Maybe more obvious when doing the captcha for real and not looking at a compressed image.

Easy to miss in a timed operation that is threatening to lock you out of an account you might need to do your job.

The line is barely visible due to the compression

Most folks aren't used to that kind of back-of-envelope mental arithmetic.

> Not much serious counting needed.

An optimal algorithm that solves the normie's problem by completely ignoring it.

I.E. "you're holding it wrong"

Would you offer this solution to a 13-year-old using GitHub for a school project? Or a 60-year-old trying to keep up with tech? Or a busy parent trying to catch up on things after a long day?

This utter lack of empathy saddens me.

Your incorrect assumption based on what I wrote and low expectations of others saddens me.

The comment speaks for itself: "I think he approaches it the wrong way," and the only problem is the ambiguous 6/9.

If there's something else you intended to say, I'd love to see a clarification.

Guess I'm not smart lol. The 6/9 ambiguity actually crossed my mind when adding it up but I thought surely they wouldn't be fucking with us that much.

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