Can You Solve This Problem?

March 24, 2012

This problem can be solved by pre-school children in 5-10 minutes. By programmers in one hour. By people with a higher education… Well, check it out yourself and post the answer in the comments when you have solved it. Now, those who want to solve it, do not cheat to see if anyone has posted the answer. But then, posting just the answer does not explain the logic here.

This took me just few minutes, so I guess I have a pre-school mentality….

Now, think outside the box, folks. There are a couple links to clues below the problem if you get frustrated, as well as a link to the answer and logic used to solve the problem.

8809 = 6
7111 = 0
2172 = 0
6666 = 4
1111 = 0
3213 = 0
7662 = 2
9313 = 1
0000 = 4
2222 = 0
3333 = 0
5555 = 0
8913 = 3
8096 = 5
7777 = 0
9999 = 4
7756 = 1
6855 = 3
9881 = 5
5531 = 0

2581 = ????

128 responses to “Can You Solve This Problem?”

hellenjc

March 24, 2012 at 1:02 pm

I lost patience which is always the way with me.. would never have got it without looking at the answer!!

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1. She speaks….
  
  March 24, 2012 at 1:24 pm
  
  Hey, but you gave it a try.
  
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  1. hellenjc
    
    March 24, 2012 at 1:29 pm
    
    I did but only for about 5 minutes!!
    
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    1. She speaks….
      
      March 24, 2012 at 10:10 pm
      
      I used to be a huge puzzle person. I loved solving problems, especially logic problems and mathematical stuff. I’d sit for hours if I needed to just to solve one problem. Now, if I can’t figure it out in 10 minutes, I’m done. I lucked out on this one. Figured it out right away.
      
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  2. Anonymous
    
    May 22, 2012 at 4:19 am
    
    the ans is 2
    count the no.of circles in each no. series
    
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2. Anonymous
  
  June 19, 2016 at 10:23 am
  
  Found it in a few seconds
  
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3. awais
  
  November 7, 2016 at 7:06 am
  
  the answer is 2
  
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  1. tskraghu
    
    November 7, 2016 at 9:01 am
    
    This ever-green piece must be one of the very few if not the only one to invite comments even after 4 to 5 years after its date of posting!!!
    
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    1. Michelle
      
      November 8, 2016 at 12:20 pm
      
      It still brings a lot of traffic.
      
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4. awais
  
  November 7, 2016 at 7:31 am
  
  answer is 2
  
  the answer to each 4-digit
  number is how many closed
  loops there are.
  
  for example:
  
  “6”has one closed loop,
  “8”has two closed loops,
  so 6889 has 6 closed loops.
  
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5. George
  
  January 13, 2017 at 5:52 am
  
  2581=2.
  
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kcwritermom

March 24, 2012 at 2:06 pm

The answer is 2

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1. She speaks….
  
  March 24, 2012 at 2:13 pm
  
  Ayup. Very good.
  
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PiedType

March 24, 2012 at 2:11 pm

I, too, lost patience after maybe 5 minutes. I was correctly working on visuals, like how many digits in each line are the same, or counting the occurrences of a certain digit. I’ll never know if the correct answer would have occurred to me.

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1. She speaks….
  
  March 24, 2012 at 2:14 pm
  
  I just approached it from a pre-school age around 4 or 5 yrs. old. What would they be looking for? Bam. Got it.
  
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2. Anonymous
  
  March 4, 2016 at 3:55 pm
  
  I spent almost 40 minutes trying to figure out this problem and didn’t get! You need more patience! But I did get the answer of 2 becasue you need to count the circles in the numbers.
  
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El Guapo

March 24, 2012 at 9:26 pm

Nope. didn’t even come close.
Brain too highly developed,I s’pose…

Great pick, She!

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1. She speaks….
  
  March 24, 2012 at 9:48 pm
  
  LOL! Thanks… I am positive you do have a highly developed brain. To solve the problem, you just have to look at it form a different perspective. The true meaning of thinking outside the box.
  
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barkinginthedark

March 25, 2012 at 2:47 am

lovely problem Michelle, . i am an idiot. had no answer. had to look at answer after 5 minutes of staring. i repeat; i am an idiot. thanks so much. continue…

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1. She speaks….
  
  March 25, 2012 at 2:55 am
  
  You are NOT an idiot! I don’t ever want to hear those words from your computer keyboard ever again! You are a genius!!! Your writing skills are unique and very rare. You have an incredible talent – I wish I just had10% of what you have. So problems like this aren’t your forte… big whoop. Some people see it, some don’t. Doesn’t mean a damn thing towards intelligence.
  
  Okay, I think I will end my scolding now…. And I’m serious, I never want to hear you type anything like that ever again.
  
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  1. barkinginthedark
    
    March 25, 2012 at 2:28 pm
    
    Awwww…thanks Michelle, i can see your finger wagging from here. what a sweet reply. not to worry, i don’t really think that, i just typed it so you would type me back that i was a genius. that’s what a genius i am! i type u a BIG hug. continue…
    
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    1. She speaks….
      
      March 25, 2012 at 2:33 pm
      
      I don’t ever want to hear you say (type) that again! Yes, my finger is still wagging!
      
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    2. barkinginthedark
      
      March 25, 2012 at 3:18 pm
      
      😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
      
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Vishal

March 28, 2012 at 3:22 pm

I think the answer is 0

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1. Anonymous
  
  March 28, 2012 at 6:26 pm
  
  i think you are wrong lol
  
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  1. She speaks….
    
    March 28, 2012 at 6:56 pm
    
    Yes, they are.
    
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Midas

March 28, 2012 at 4:56 pm

This problem is bollocks.
I didn’t solve it, and yet I have no trouble solving Mensa problems. I don’t think they mean anything either to be fair.

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1. She speaks….
  
  March 28, 2012 at 6:56 pm
  
  I am a member of Mensa. The problem is valid and has an answer and very logical reasoning. You just have to move out of an adult frame of mind and into a child’s frame of mind. They think more visually at a young age. Pre-schoolers cannot add, and counting is limited. But what can they do? See consistent shapes because that’s what they’ve been doing…. squares, triangles, CIRCLES…
  
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  1. Carolina
    
    June 11, 2012 at 4:26 pm
    
    You might be correct about moving out to a child’s frame of mind. But not entirely.
    Actually, I discovered the answer by maths and not by visual view.
    I discovered the padron 8=2, 6=1, 9=1 and 0=1 by decoding the value of each number basing myself in the data presented.
    For example, we know 7=0 (because 7777=0), 5=0 (also for 5555=0) and 2=0 (2222=0). Thus, if 7756=1, 6 as to value 1, because 7+7+5+6=1 0+0+0+6=1. We can confirm this in 6666=4 1+1+1+1=4
    And so on, I was able to found the values in about 5 minutes.
    So I don’t really believe that programmers take 1 hour to discover the pattern, because I’m a portuguese Speech Therapist and found it in 5 minutes 😉
    
    But still, it was fun! 🙂
    
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    1. Hades
      
      August 31, 2012 at 7:12 am
      
      glad someone has a mind like mine :P, i used the same math method and got the answer, but still i feel stupid for not noticing the circles
      
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    2. chazzer
      
      January 20, 2016 at 3:05 pm
      
      (Several years later… 😉 ) Your technique correctly determined that 8’s have a value of 2, just not /why/ 8’s have a value of 2. But the question didn’t ask /why/, just /what/ (as in, /what/ is the answer). So, nice job! 😀
      
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uguu

March 30, 2012 at 2:04 pm

It’s actually a math problem. You just need to consider the series as a bunch of signifiers rather than as numbers proper.
From the series that add up to 0, we can figure out that 3,5,7,2 and 1 are equal to 0. (5555= 0, 1111=0 etc)
From the series that add up to 1, we realize that 6,0 and 9 are equal to 1. (6666 = 4, 9999 = 4, 0000=4)
Then from the single = 6 series, we realize that 8 = 2. (8809 = x+x +1+1 = 6; x = 2)
With this, we know that 2 = 0, 5 = 0, 8 = 2, 1 =0. 2581 = 0+0+2+0 = 2

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1. She speaks….
  
  March 30, 2012 at 3:15 pm
  
  You are correct but have grossly over worked this problem – made it much more difficult than necessary. You simply assigned a 0, 1 or 2 to the numbers according to the number of closed loops in them.
  
  For numbers which equal 0 (3,5,7,2 and 1 are equal to 0), that is because those numbers do not have any closed loops. Therefore, 0 loops.
  
  For “6,0 and 9 are equal to 1” that is because each of those numbers has one closed loop. Therefore, 1 loop.
  
  For “we realize that 8 = 2” that is because 8 has two closed loops. Therefore 2 loops.
  
  A pre-schooler is not able to make the connection you did. Plus, your connection was unnecessary. But good job and making it making it work mathematically, but it is the exact same theory as visually counting the closed loops in the numbers. So, in essence, it is not necessary a math problem unless you want it to be a math problem.
  
  It’s kind of like going from Paris to London. You can go directly, or go via way of Moscow. You got to your destination, but took the Moscow route.
  
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  1. Anonymous
    
    April 12, 2012 at 3:48 pm
    
    But honestly, that’s exactly how I solved it as well – maybe “simpler” if you don’t think about the visual shape.
    
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    1. She speaks….
      
      April 12, 2012 at 4:37 pm
      
      It’s impressive how you did that. And is exactly right. Just so we arrive at the destination. As a Mensan, I often over-complicate things. I am actually horrible with multiple choice questions because somehow in my mind, I can make several answers work. I just made myself focus on thinking like a child and got this one quickly because of that. Otherwise I would have taken much longer and probably came up with your system.
      
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2. Mr. Y.
  
  June 1, 2012 at 4:19 pm
  
  yep that’s me too… but really Moscow is lovely, I don’t see why not go through it on the way from London to Paris it’s much more fun, espaicaly if you’re not a pre- schooler 🙂
  
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  1. Michelle at Motley News
    
    June 1, 2012 at 4:43 pm
    
    LOL… you are funny! I am very glad you enjoyed the problem. That’s the whole point. For fun.
    
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tskraghu

March 30, 2012 at 8:02 pm

V nice. Confess I clicked to find the answer.

Dont know how I missed getting notifications of these posts.

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1. She speaks….
  
  March 30, 2012 at 8:05 pm
  
  Not sure. Are you still following? I know that with the upgrades a few people have been “dropped” and had to refollow again.
  
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  1. tskraghu
    
    March 30, 2012 at 8:10 pm
    
    Yes, I got back just now. Thanks.
    
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tskraghu

March 30, 2012 at 8:07 pm

Could I reblog this one with credits?

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1. She speaks….
  
  March 30, 2012 at 8:19 pm
  
  Of course! You, or anyone, is always welcome to reblog.
  
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tskraghu

March 30, 2012 at 10:18 pm

Thanks.

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1. She speaks….
  
  March 30, 2012 at 11:33 pm
  
  Oh, you know… You were subscribed to Motley Dogs, not Motley News before. That’s why you haven’t been getting any posts – I haven’t posted for a while on Motley Dogs. I’m redoing the theme at the moment and have a few bugs to work out.
  
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  1. tskraghu
    
    March 31, 2012 at 2:06 am
    
    Oh…that explains.
    
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nikolaymikhaylenko

April 3, 2012 at 11:55 pm

= 2

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nikolaymikhaylenko

April 3, 2012 at 11:56 pm

= 2 ))))))))

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1. She speaks….
  
  April 4, 2012 at 12:00 am
  
  Да. Очень хорошо.
  
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  1. Anonymous
    
    April 6, 2012 at 6:49 pm
    
    Stop writing upside down
    
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    1. Anonymous
      
      October 12, 2015 at 10:36 am
      
      Why should i😭😭😭
      
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Anonymous

April 12, 2012 at 1:45 pm

2

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Raffycopter

April 13, 2012 at 6:18 am

I gave 0,6,9 the value 1 and 8 the value 2 it took me about 10 minutes to solve the last problem but just to count the holes 😀 who would think of that

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Anonymous

April 13, 2012 at 3:24 pm

The problem as stated is ill-posed; it has 10 correct solutions.

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1. She speaks….
  
  April 13, 2012 at 3:47 pm
  
  And what are they? And how did you arrive at them? Simply stating that it has 10 correct solutions doesn’t make it so.
  
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Josh

April 14, 2012 at 12:08 am

I got 2 as the answer but I didn’t get it using this “closed loop” method. It was simply finding out how much each number was worth. Example”2172=0″ you now know that 2, 1, 7 all have values of 0. That makes sense right? lol

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1. She speaks….
  
  April 14, 2012 at 12:16 am
  
  Yes, makes perfect sense because those numbers (2, 1, 7) do not have any closed loops (and there are others, too).
  
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Happy Birthday to Motley News! One Year Old Today!! « Motley News

April 14, 2012 at 10:08 am

[…] 3,000 to 4,000 hits per day, although lately I’ve been surpassing the 4k mark. My post “Can You Solve This Problem?” has been very popular since publishing. I guess a lot of people aren’t able to solve […]

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Anonymous

April 15, 2012 at 1:34 am

LOL! I often fail at exams for being too excited and not read directions. hate my self for not doing it till now until i read the first clue. the answer is 2. XD

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1. Michelle at Motley News
  
  April 15, 2012 at 2:03 am
  
  Very good! 🙂
  
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lol

April 16, 2012 at 6:09 am

figured it out. took me couple minutes, though.

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Cait

April 23, 2012 at 8:25 pm

Equals the total number of circles in the numerals

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Anonymous

April 30, 2012 at 1:36 pm

that’s not how I solved it at all, although I see how many would go that route.

I started by isolating 0’s… 5555=0 so 5 must =0. 2222=0 so 2 must equal 0. 1111=0 so 1=0.

To get the 8 i saw 0000=4 so 0=1, 9999=4 so 9=1, so 8809=6 with 09=2 means 8 = 2.

2=0
5=0
8=2
1=0

Which means 2581 = 2.

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Anonymous

May 3, 2012 at 10:45 am

All the discussion about how you arrive at the answer doesn’t address the fact that the question is B.S. It’s a false premise designed to make you feel foolish. Those that “solved” the problem mathematically didn’t overthink it. They came up with a reasonable solution that fit within the framework of the question, exposing how incorrect the initial statement is. Apparently, the educated were supposed to take forever to figure it out and give up, but the mathematically inclined worked it as a math problem and came up with the “correct” solution just as quickly as the imaginary pre-schoolers would have. The fact is, pre-schoolers may have come up with the “correct” answer by chance, but I believe the assessment of how long they would spend with it is basically accurate. After looking at the seemingly senseless array, they would shrug and move on to something more interesting. Pre-schooler don’t, regardless of what this question would ask you to believe, see numbers in terms of closed loops. They are more likely to be overwhelmed by 4 digit numbers and not even attempt to figure out the answer.

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1. Michelle at Motley News
  
  May 3, 2012 at 10:50 am
  
  I think perhaps you are reading too much into this. This is supposed to be both fun and challenging. Nothing more, nothing less.
  
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Emilio

May 4, 2012 at 8:33 pm

There is another way to get to the solution.
Let’s ignore the series of four numbers on the left and just work with the single digit numbers on the right. If we start adding from top to bottom, we have series that add up to 10. Once you reach 10, you move to the next secuence. For instance: 6+0+0+4=10. Then 0+0+2+1+4+0+0+0+3=10. Then 5+0+4+1=10. And finally 3+5+0+x=10. Therefore x=2.

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1. Michelle at Motley News
  
  May 4, 2012 at 9:33 pm
  
  If we start adding from top to bottom, we have series that add up to 10. Once you reach 10, you move to the next secuence. For instance: 6+0+0+4=10. Then 0+0+2+1+4+0+0+0+3=10. Then 5+0+4+1=10. And finally 3+5+0+x=10. Therefore x=2.
  
  That’s good, but coincidental. For example, if you switch the placement of the two numbers:
  
  8913 = 3
  8096 = 5
  
  to:
  
  8096 = 5
  8913 = 3
  
  Then it will not work because you will then have:
  
  6+0+0+4=10
  0+0+2+1+4+0+0+0+5=12
  3+0+4+1+3=11
  
  Great creativity, though. Thinking outside the box is the only way to get anywhere.
  
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  1. Aya Sofya
    
    August 24, 2012 at 11:32 am
    
    i used that way too…adding all the numbers like that and i somehow think the answer would be 2 to make it 10.I guess I’m just lucky. I would never dream to count the loops.
    
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2. chazzer
  
  January 20, 2016 at 3:09 pm
  
  (Several years later… 😉 ) I think it is both coincidental, and lucky, that “2” is the right answer. Why is it required that this is the last number in the series? Couldn’t this answer have been a “0” or a “1” just as easily, with more numbers after it? Okay, well it /was/ the last number given; so, both lucky and coincidental, I think. 😉
  
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John Dough

May 15, 2012 at 5:42 am

I had to look at the first clue, about thinking like a pre-schooler, and then the answer just came to me……

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Matt Mid-Wales

May 29, 2012 at 5:36 am

I hate to throw a spanner in the works here, but what about the number 4? The puzzle doesn’t use a 4 in any of it’s numbers. Are we counting “circles” within the numbers – OR – are we counting “enclosed spaces” within the numbers?

4 – As written on a computer, DOES include an enclosed space. Therefore it would be “1”.

4 – However does NOT contain a circle. So it would be a “0”.

So here’s the next number for you in the pattern::

4800 – ??

Could be 4 OR 5…

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1. Michelle at Motley News
  
  May 29, 2012 at 6:10 am
  
  It is loops or circles. That’s a good point however. The creator of the question only did circles, though, since 4 is not included. Plus not everyone writes the number 4 as a closed number.
  
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  1. Matt Mid-Wales
    
    May 29, 2012 at 11:10 am
    
    I think the number 4 was left out of this puzzle by the creator on purpose for this very reason…! Causes further brain scratching…!
    
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    1. Michelle at Motley News
      
      May 29, 2012 at 1:43 pm
      
      It’s still a damn good problem. Especially because it also shows how we, as humans – especially higher educated people – need to step outside our box and go back to the “basics.” We tend to over complicate our lives all the time, every day. I love this problem specifically for that reason. And it’s funny… so many people have tried to poo-poo the easy (and correct) answer by working out all these calculations, etc. “It has to be more difficult than that.” More so because they’re pissed because they probably didn’t figure it out, yet most kids can figure it out in a few minutes. That was the key right there. And I’m lucky I caught that right away otherwise I probably would have tried to right a damn program to figure it out.
      
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Claudine

June 1, 2012 at 6:22 am

Yeah I got it in les than 5 minutes!

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Mr. Y.

June 1, 2012 at 3:59 pm

well I got the answer but through “analyzing” the… equations (I added the numbers in each of them to see the new “value” they were given…) not through the more simple way of just looking at them. took between 5 to 10 minutes. it was fun though 🙂

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Mr. Y.

June 1, 2012 at 4:08 pm

further explanation: 1+1+1+1=o… 1=0 it was the same for the numbers 2,3,5, and 7. but, 0+0+0+0=4 so 0=1 and that’s the same for 6 and 9. I than put the new values where 8 has been for example 8+0+9+6=5 would be 8+1+1+1=5 so 8=5-3, 8+2. 4 wasn’t needed and 2+5+8+1=0+0+2+0 =2.

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Nana

June 3, 2012 at 8:45 am

I did the same. Seems less arbitrary than looking at shapes, but that’s just me. Proves you are not necessarily wrong to think “inside” the box…

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Jeff

June 4, 2012 at 4:38 am

I figured this out, but i never made the connection to closed loops. i just figured out that 8 was worth 2, and 6,0,9 were worth 1.

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Anonymous

June 7, 2012 at 3:41 am

lost my patiance…. and looked at the answer

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Anonymous

June 12, 2012 at 3:05 pm

Civil Engineer – took me 10 minutes… to look at the answer. couldnt figure it out. I think it would be more fun if you put the part about the preschoolers answering it more quickly under the first clue. i would have spent more time working on it.

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deemer

June 15, 2012 at 11:37 pm

Hey , I am programmer and come up with the almost same solution as “uguu”…
So I spotted that 0 =1 , 1 = 0, 2=0 , 3 = 0 ,4 = ? , 5 =0 , 6 =1, 7= 0, 8 =? , 9=1 after looking on the “same number” series (1111,2222….), then I took 8809 = 6 , so 0 = 1 and 9 = 1 so 8 must be 2 🙂
do you think that the fact of being programmer made me think like that ?:) (well it took me no more than 30 minutes anyway:)) was trying to think as pre school child but forgot what pre school child thinks (I am 30 and my child has only 2 months :)) do you thin that age does matter ?

Any way it was good one !! Thanks for that !!

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1. Michelle at Motley News
  
  June 15, 2012 at 11:42 pm
  
  Excellent! Glad you enjoyed it. Amazing how minds work. You’re a programmer so you think analytically. I’m a graphic artist/website designer, so I think visually.
  
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mark

June 17, 2012 at 6:08 am

i solved it for less than 10 mins

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Anonymous

June 23, 2012 at 11:36 am

i can not like image on facebook bcoz an errer accour any solve my problem

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unc4dsp

June 27, 2012 at 6:06 am

2 🙂

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jorge

June 27, 2012 at 7:33 am

primes numbers have not close loops and how far is the rest to the next prime is how i did it

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TomClement

June 28, 2012 at 4:44 pm

Just had to think like a pre-schooler and throw out my degree in mathematics. Took about 15 seconds to do that, and it felt good 🙂

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1. TomClement
  
  June 28, 2012 at 4:49 pm
  
  Oh, and the actual “first clue” and most important clue is that pre-schoolers can do it easily. *That*’s the metadata you gave us that leads straight to the answer.
  
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  1. Michelle at Motley News
    
    June 28, 2012 at 6:58 pm
    
    That’s all I did. I knew a preschooler could solve it, but also knew their math was very limited. Pretty much count only (thanks Sesame Street!). So what’s left? Visual.
    
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Tim

June 30, 2012 at 1:44 pm

I started, went back to the instruction to think outside the box and had it in about 15 seconds (plus another 15 to check the other samples). Sorry.

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Yardbird

July 10, 2012 at 8:07 pm

I may have been lucky but looking at the answers and ignoring the zeros there appeared to be a pattern that alternated in the answers. 4 plus 2 is 6. 4 minus 3 is 1. 4+1 is 5. 5 minus x is 3. x is 2. Five minutes.

6
0
0
4
0
0
2 4+2=6
1
4
0
0
0
3 4-3=1
5
0
4
1 4+1=5
3
5
0 5-x=3; x=2

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Mihai

July 11, 2012 at 11:11 am

This problem is one big mind trick. The way it is formulated and if you use “+” and “=” as we know them from mathematics the real answer is not just only 2 but 0(zero) also and 1 also and 6 also and so on… because:
0000 = 4 means 0+0+0+0=4 means 0=1
2222 = 0 means 2+2+2+2=0 means 2=0 so then 2=1=0
But also the problem says:
6666 = 4 meaning 6=1 then 2=1=0=6 and so on.

You cannot use some sing as being a value and a sign that has a different value in the same time because that is not logic at all. 2 cannot be 0 and 2 in the same time knowing that 0 is different than 2.
It looks logic but it is not.
The solution with counting the circles gives more logic than the other one.
In order for this problem to be logic then in the left of the “=” sign should be something else than numbers used as signs.

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1. Justice193
  
  September 1, 2012 at 5:37 am
  
  you are over thinking things here, in programming, we can declare a variable, that variable can be any combination of letters or numbers, and we assign those specific combinations of letters and numbers a value. normally we can’t use a number as a variable in programming for obvious reasons, however, in theory, we can. Using this programming logic as our guideline, everything to the left of an = sign is a variable, and everything to the right, the sum of those variables.
  
  if working with that many numbers confuses you, replace the numbers on the left of the = sign with letters, and it should make more sense.
  
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Ranji Mallik

July 21, 2012 at 10:57 am

image does not show. plece solv this problem

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Phillip

July 21, 2012 at 10:53 pm

I took it real easy so as not to strain my brain. With time the answer just appeared on the screen. Phillip

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IzaakMak

July 27, 2012 at 9:19 pm

Good grief, I feel stupid!!! 😳

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1. Michelle at Motley News
  
  July 27, 2012 at 9:42 pm
  
  Pish-tosh. Don’t.
  
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Sebastian

August 16, 2012 at 10:55 am

Once we are grown, we look at numbers and letters as conveying abstract information (quantities, sounds). Admittedly, I did look at all the hints and eventually the answer. When I did though, I couldn’t help but laugh. I’m pretty good with patterns, but I would never have thought to look at the figure eight for what it is (two loops) or to look at a zero as one loop. It’s amazing how much our way of looking at things changes as we get older, especially with regards to symbols which we are taught to simply extract information from, rather consider the symbols themselves.

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Justice193

September 1, 2012 at 5:31 am

I got this one using math, didn’t think of the closed loops things though. as soon as I saw so many numbers cropping up, and the mention of programmers, it got me to thinking of variables, and how they hold value, so I wrote a list ranging from 0 to 9, with equals signs, and started filling in the values based off the alple evidence provided, and had it solved in less than 2 minutes :).

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1. I tried
  
  September 26, 2012 at 8:27 pm
  
  Haha, nice, that totally makes sense. Way to go, and way to defeat the purpose of the question.
  
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t

September 7, 2012 at 7:23 pm

You just count the number of circles like 1=0 6=1 8=2

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I tried

September 26, 2012 at 8:26 pm

I was thinking modular arithmetic and all this other weird stuff cause I’m in a group theory class right now. Then I read the second hint which said it wasn’t a math problem and sighed.

Then I got it 10 seconds later 🙂

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Jefferson

October 1, 2012 at 12:19 pm

Haha…I was thinking of my nieces and picked up a cell phone since they like playing with their mom’s iPad. And I over thinked it. But the top left numbers all equal zero (1,2,3,4,5,7) then like the rest. found the values for 6,8, 9, 0. Haha loops…wish i could be a kid again. Have a great day!

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Jen

October 30, 2012 at 5:42 pm

Surprise! I got it in 30 seconds or less I would say. The answer is two. I don’t know if anyone else agrees with me. Perhaps it is because I have had several strokes.

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Tsang

November 29, 2012 at 3:08 pm

i think it is “2”

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Anonymous

January 27, 2013 at 2:40 pm

I got two, but for a different reason. I obviously over thought it, but here:
Since 0000, 6666, and 9999 are all equal to 4, each individual number (0,6, and 9) is equal to one. 4 and 8 are both equal to 2. If you look at the first one, 8809=6, you’ll see that 8 = 2, 8 = 2, 0 = 1, and 9 = 1. I’m pretty sure that this key works for all of them.

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Hunter

March 20, 2013 at 5:21 am

Your actually wrong it should be 1.

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rtym

March 27, 2013 at 2:24 am

Would never have gotten there 😉 . Even after reading the answer it took me about 5 minutes. Tried all kinds of stuff I know about series/sequences. After the answer said it is about counting the circles … well I tried to transform the numbers so that they would represent a circle xD.
Nice problem though.

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ttdijkstra

April 17, 2013 at 2:00 pm

Same as Jen. Rather simple problem. I actually find 5 to 10 minutes quite long.

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Satyam mishra

May 28, 2013 at 12:14 am

Ans is 2

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Motley News Passes 2 Million Hits! « Motley News and Photos

August 20, 2013 at 5:33 pm

[…] other enjoyable posts which are also in the top 5 daily now are Can you Solve this Problem? and Popular Toys and Games from the 1970s and […]

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P

September 16, 2013 at 2:21 am

Problem gives you that 1,2,3,5,7 all = 0 —- and 0,6,9 all =1

So if 8809=6 and 0 and 9 are 1 each, that’s 2+2+1+1
2581 = 0+0+2+0 = 2

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Anonymous

October 1, 2013 at 7:17 pm

2 there r 2 circles

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Gabriel

July 16, 2014 at 11:17 pm

I actually solved this with a completely different logic, as a math problem. It never occurred to me that it was about the closed loops, and yet my logic was correct and lead me to the correct answer..

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Anonymous

July 25, 2014 at 5:12 am

It took me about 30 seconds… I knew I’m still a child inside XD

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Russ

November 2, 2014 at 3:10 pm

LOL! got it immediately! Does that make me childish (bad) or child-like (good)?

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Anonymous

March 28, 2015 at 7:46 pm

learned years ago that if u can’t get the answer u r simply looking at the wrong way. after about 2 mins of looking at it in a few different ways i looked at it as shapes and boom went da dynamite!

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Anonymous

April 26, 2015 at 2:31 pm

Took me 3 minutes, I didn’t do it by the number of loops though. I saw that certain sets = certain amounts. For example, 0000 = 4. I reasoned that 0 = 1. So, I knew I needed to know the values of 1,2,5 and 8. I used the same method to reason the values of 1,2, and 5 were 0. Then, I decided that 8 = 2 because 8809 = 6, while 0=1 and 9=1, and 88=4. Therefore 8 = 2 and 2581 = 2.

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lilly

September 30, 2015 at 2:57 pm

i did this in school today at first it was carzy but then it was really easy

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Batman

October 21, 2015 at 7:31 am

I just figured out which numbers were assigned a numerical value, didn’t think visually, I thought in the sense of code breaking. Through deduction it was pretty easy to figure out 0 = 1, 9 = 1, 8 = 2 and 6 = 1.

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1. Michelle
  
  October 21, 2015 at 8:13 pm
  
  That’s good. If you notice, though, your logic corresponds to the number of loops in each number.
  
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【頭の体操クイズ】ある法則に基づいて「?」の数字を答えなさい / ヒントは「考えるな、感じろ」 | ぽーたりーふ

January 7, 2016 at 4:48 pm

[…] 参照元：Motley New 執筆：P.K.サンジュンイラスト：RocketNews24. […]

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Lisa

April 2, 2016 at 10:35 am

When I looked at the second clue and it said think visually, it instantly was apparent what the key was.

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shakeelnawaz

May 31, 2016 at 9:20 pm

6

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shakeelnawaz

May 31, 2016 at 9:30 pm

Anyone how tell logic behind this???

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1. Michelle
  
  June 9, 2016 at 5:43 pm
  
  If you look at the answer I included, it explains the logic.
  
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Anonymous

June 14, 2017 at 9:08 am

This answer can be figured out by process of elimination as well. Understanding the values of each number allows one to deduce that 8 = 2 and that 2, 5, & 1 = 0. (More than 1 way to skin a cat!) 🙂

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Anonymous

June 18, 2017 at 9:49 pm

some fucking retards these kids are

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