Simple pie chart is missing a number - but the answer isn't obvious

18 October 2023 , 06:00

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There's one number missing on the chart (full image below) (Image: Twitter / @quiz_riddles)

If you want to keep your brain in tip-top shape, then you need to exercise it just as regularly as you would the rest of your body. Admittedly, you can't exactly stick your brain on a treadmill, but there are other ways you can give it a workout - through different types of puzzles. Watching quiz shows and answering the sometimes fiendishly difficult questions is a great way to boost your brain function, or maybe solving riddles is more your thing.

And a new brain teaser has been leaving some people scratching their heads as they struggle to work out what the solution is. All you have to do is find which number is missing from the pie chart below, but be warned - it's not as easy as it looks.

Find the missing number as fast as you can (Twitter / @quiz_riddles)

The pie chart, shared on Twitter by the Daily Quiz and Riddles account, @quiz_riddles, is split into eight segments and shows seven numbers, with the final segment containing a question mark. From the missing number going clockwise, the numbers are: 23, 31, 24, 17, 6, 3, and 8.

Your job is to find what number is supposed to go in the final segment. It definitely isn't easy, and there doesn't seem to be an obvious pattern you can follow. The numbers don't increase by a set number each time, and they're also not all part of the same times table, so how do you solve it?

There's a trick to working out the answer to this puzzle, and it involves looking at the opposite sets of numbers. Looking at the centre of the circle, each segment has one other segment that is directly opposite - 23 is opposite 6, 31 is opposite 3, 24 is opposite 8, and 17 is opposite the missing number.

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Can you use this information to work out what the answer is? We're about to tell you the solution, so if you're still working it out, don't scroll down any further!

Solution:

The missing number is 7. According to another tweet sent by the same account: "The single digits at the bottom half of the chart are derived by multiplying the double digits at each of the opposite sides of the chart."

Each of the two-digit numbers multiplies together to make the single-digit number it is opposite in the pie chart - so with 23 being opposite to 6, you just need to know that 2x3 is 6. The same works for 31 and 3, and 24 and 8. So, with 17 being the two-digit number opposite to the segment we were trying to solve, all we had to do was multiply 1 and 7, which is 7.

Did you solve it? Let us know in the comments. And if that brain teaser was too easy for you, then why not try out some other super tricky puzzles instead? This one challenges you to find a hidden number, while this one is said to be so hard it's "unsolvable".

Zahna Eklund