I’d like to ask the good people of this community that, if you do know the solution or figure it out, that you not share the answer here. Feel free to announce your success, but there’s something to be said for discovering the answer completely unaided, even if it takes years.
It’s embarrassingly obvious once you see it though.
I love puzzles like this—the rule always seems obvious after you see it. It’s satisfying when something that sits in the back of your mind for years finally clicks.
I prime factored everything and was looking at ways to manipulate the factors together in a sensible rule. Seemed like a good approach, with the prime numbers at the end.
Now I'm a bit disappointed that
spoiler
it was just the digits and not the factors...
This felt like a word puzzle where you have to make an analogous leap beyond surface meaning of words.
I think I figured it out, but it's so easy that I don't think that could possibly be it. But it is, apparently.
I figured it out took about 10 minutes, thought i was onto it immediately until I had 8 at the end haha
Made me remember the extremely simple logic suite, a child could do it, but I had to sleep on it:
O T T F _
What's the letter after F ?
Ah, typo is short for typographical error. I’v never realized that before.
Those pesky lead pieces all look the same eh!
Solved it. Wonderful. I got really hung up on dividing things by nine and seven, trying to use the remainder and stuff. But the answer, as always, is far more obvious. That which we are so used to interpreting, we simply ignore it.
Nice puzzle, at first you go "wtf last should be 8" but then I read the last sentence "not a typo" and took some minutes to crack it. If it wasn't for having seen a similar solution in a different puzzle I would have been completely lost and once you know the solution it's impossible to not see it. I can see how the author of the puzzle really liked it.
Oh i see,
Its
solution
12
You add up the digits.
(7+2)+(9+9)=9+18=27
9+(4+5)=9+9=18
(1+8)+(3+9)=9+12=21
(2+1)+(3+6)=3+9=12
3+(2+8)=3+10=13
(1+3)+(2+1)=4+3=7
Yay
I figured it out in about 3 minutes. I think I'm autistic or something
Took me 30 seconds. Autistic as f.
IMHO, although it is hard to solve, it is neither brilliant nor profound - rather, it is misleading. It relies on a simple and common trickery involving multiple of 3, which is easy to see through for those with mathematical intuition. Of course many do not practice math, so it is seemingly interesting for them, but it's not much.
I do agree that there is no objective metric as to what constitutes as "brilliant" or "profound".
I suppose that the lack of clarity in your comments intention and (what I assume) your thought process being laid out for the audience to check for fallacy, was interpreted as unkind behaviour: specifically implying that those who weren't following your thinking process were not smart.
I doubt that you had such an intention when you wrote this comment, so I write this reply to highlight that "truth", "fact", and "opinion" in an inaccessible format may lead to misinterpretation and unwarranted conclusions.
TLDR: Yes, and please consider rephrasing to communicate intention.
Well, I got it correct with a guess based on a casual glance at what was there, not how the numbers actually relate or calculations based on rules or patterns.
Then I had to figure out how it actually worked.
Which was harder -- I wish I had kept scrolling.
Fun puzzle - thanks for sharing!
I still keep thinking it's 15, which I know is wrong, and then I math in 14,but I can't figure out a function. Does someone want to dm me or spoiler me the function how it works? My brain is too full of more important stuff and I cannot make room for this. But I must know!
Someone else commented the pattern. The answer is not 14 or 15.
Hint
There is no function. You won't find the answer by trying different combinations math operations on the values. You need to think more outside the box.
Hint #2
Ignore the values.
Hint #3
Focus on just three numbers. How can 13 and 21 produce 7?
Thank you so very much!!!
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