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Topic: Missing Shapes (Read 677 times) |
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Barukh
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Missing Shapes
« on: May 24th, 2006, 1:41am » |
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Yes, I know, such problems are often ambiguous. Still, I've found this one worth presenting.
So, here it goes.
Source: Inspired by a problem published in weekly newspaper.
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oh_boy
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Re: Missing Shapes
« Reply #1 on: May 25th, 2006, 8:03am » |
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Is the answer {nothing, 7 circles, 8 diamonds} ?
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Icarus
wu::riddles Moderator
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Re: Missing Shapes
« Reply #2 on: May 25th, 2006, 3:26pm » |
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One pattern gives: 8 triangles, 9 circles, 1 diamond
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When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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towr
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Re: Missing Shapes
« Reply #3 on: May 26th, 2006, 12:49am » |
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12 circles, or 6 triangles would also work (and keeping the rest the same as Icarus' solution)
or 5 triangles 4 circles, 1 diamond
Which just goes to prove the aneristic principle (the principle of apparant order), people can find patterns everywhere, whether they're there or not.
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| « Last Edit: May 26th, 2006, 2:16am by towr » |
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JohanC
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Re: Missing Shapes
« Reply #4 on: May 26th, 2006, 3:03am » |
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My first considerations went to
4 triangles, 9 circles and 5 diamonds
But then I wondered: why would this riddle include irrational numbers?
Maybe the rows are just added as in
4 triangles, 6 circles and 8 diamonds ?
Or 2 triangles, 6 circles and 10 diamonds to make both the rows and the columns sum to 6-12-18?
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Barukh
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Re: Missing Shapes
« Reply #5 on: May 26th, 2006, 5:11am » |
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on May 26th, 2006, 3:03am, JohanC wrote:| But then I wondered: why would this riddle include irrational numbers? |
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Why not? 
I would like to understand the patterns of other solutions too.
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JohanC
Senior Riddler
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Re: Missing Shapes
« Reply #6 on: May 26th, 2006, 1:45pm » |
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on May 26th, 2006, 5:11am, Barukh wrote:Why not?
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Yes, I think it makes some sense.
Quote:| I would like to understand the patterns of other solutions too. |
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Oh_boy's solution also seems quite appealing considering each line as a three digit number and divide twice by two.
Icarus seems to prefer arithmetic series for each symbol, but Towr's first guess suggests geometric series could serve as well. Towr's other proposals are probably more clever, as I don't discover their logic.
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Grimbal
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Re: Missing Shapes
« Reply #7 on: May 27th, 2006, 9:38am » |
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I only figured that squares + triangles = circles but it doesn't determine all the values. I had to resort to arithmetic sequences for each shape: 1-1-1, 2-5-8 and 3-6-9 which is compatible with the sums. And in fact is what Icarus proposed.
Another solution would be 2 triangles-6 circles-4 squares:
circles = squares + triangles in rows and columns.
Oh_boy's is the one I like most. A silly alternative to that would be 312 -> 156 -> 0, making the last row completely empty!
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| « Last Edit: May 29th, 2006, 1:33am by Grimbal » |
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towr
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Re: Missing Shapes
« Reply #8 on: May 28th, 2006, 7:08am » |
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on May 26th, 2006, 1:45pm, JohanC wrote:| Icarus seems to prefer arithmetic series for each symbol, but Towr's first guess suggests geometric series could serve as well. |
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You can have one be arithmetic and one geometric as well.
Quote:| Towr's other proposals are probably more clever, as I don't discover their logic. |
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5,4,1 is what you get when you want to have the number of figures in each column be the same, non-zero, and minimal.
The only constant in our patterns this far is than we go with triangles, circles, diamonds for the last line.
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TenaliRaman
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Re: Missing Shapes
« Reply #9 on: May 30th, 2006, 8:38am » |
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Icarus' answer was the first that hit me.
I have seen such questions being used in personality assessment quizzes. I wonder what one can deduce from this?
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Self discovery comes when a man measures himself against an obstacle - Antoine de Saint Exupery
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