Which Ring? Three Rings
Read the puzzle
Three overlapping rings are labelled ROUND, BLUE and HAS A DOT. A plain yellow circle sits only in ROUND, a striped blue square only in BLUE, and a yellow square with a white dot only in HAS A DOT. Four tiles are offered: A) striped blue circle, B) yellow circle with a dot, C) striped blue square with a dot, D) striped blue circle with a dot. Which tile belongs in the very centre, where all three rings overlap?
Which tile belongs in the very centre?
It must be round, blue and have a dot.
D
Only D is round, blue AND has a dot.
How to solve it
The very centre is inside all three rings at once, so a tile placed there must match all three labels: it must be round, it must be blue, and it must have a dot. Check each tile against the three tests and drop it at the first failure.
Tile A is a striped blue circle. Round: yes. Blue: yes. Dot: no. It belongs where ROUND and BLUE overlap, not the centre.
Tile B is a yellow circle with a dot. Round: yes. Blue: no. It belongs in the ROUND and HAS A DOT overlap.
Tile C is a striped blue square with a dot. Round: no. It belongs in the BLUE and HAS A DOT overlap.
Tile D is a striped blue circle with a dot. Round: yes. Blue: yes. Dot: yes. It passes all three, so D goes in the centre.
The usual wrong pick is A or C, which each pass two tests and look close. Takeaway: in a three-ring diagram, the centre needs every label, so one missing feature rules a tile out.
Learn the method: Process of Elimination in Puzzles: Rule Out Until One Is Left
