When and where was the origin of the contest that we now know as “Rock, Paper, Scissors”? And how seriously was it taken; e.g.: was is just child’s-play, or was it actually used to settle minor disputes short of drawing swords?
(I tried searching old threads, but did not find this addressed.)
Funny!
I googled it to see if I could come up woth something, and the first link: The Straight Dope! 
I’m trying to resist the urge to link to the Far Side cartoon about “before paper and scissors”. In all seriousness, that dope column mentions that they can’t determine the accuracy of several competing claims, including one that the game originated in Ireland by 600 B. C. Did paper and scissors even exist in Ireland and that time? I know that the Egyptians had already invented papyrus, but I thought that the concept didn’t spread to Europe until much later. As for scissors, I really have no information at all.
There’s a word for the relationship of the three items in RPS, where P beats R, R beats S and S beats P, but I can’t think of it. It’s possible to make a set of three dice that have this relationship, so if you have a set of these dice, you can give your opponent choice of one die and you can pick from the other two and have an advantage on a single roll. I’d imagine the odds in your favor would go up if you made it best 2 out of 3 and even moreso as you increase the number of throws.
The dice (usually a set of four, but sets of three do exist) are called non-tranistive dice. Here’s another article showing a simple way to show which of two dice is the winner.
Astroboy14, thanks for the link. I used the SDMB search function and came up empty; I never thought to try Google. (I’m somewhat ‘computer ability challenged’.) I’ll remember it for next time, though. :smack:
ITR champion, I too like that Far Side cartoon. I also wonder about what they did before paper and scissors; perhaps ‘rock, pelt, knife’. Or perhaps, as the article suggested, they used other items altogether; like ants and elephants. As an aside, I checked out the home page mentioned in your profile and find it very amusing and quite clever. Kudos. 
Faldage, thanks for the info about non-transitive dice. It’s interesting, albeit a bit of struggle to grasp for the non-mathematician. Good luck in your attempt to “unsuccessfully understand the universe” (from your profile page); wish I could help. 
Don’t forget the variation: Rock paper scissors Spock Lizard: