Which Ring? Dots and Stripes
Read the puzzle
Two overlapping rings are labelled HAS A DOT (left) and HAS STRIPES (right). A plain dark tile with a small gold dot sits in the left ring only, a tile with horizontal stripes in the right ring only, and a plain tile with an empty circle outline outside both. Options: A) plain dark tile with a gold dot, B) diagonally striped tile, no dot, C) diagonally striped tile with a gold dot, D) plain dark tile with a gold dot inside a ring. Which tile belongs in the middle?
Which tile belongs in the middle?
It needs a dot and stripes.
C
Only tile C has a dot AND stripes.
How to solve it
The overlap holds only tiles that have a dot and stripes together. Check every option for both features.
Dot: A has a dot, B has none, C has a dot, and D has a dot inside a ring. So B is out.
Stripes: A is plain, C is striped, D is plain. So A and D are out.
Only C, the striped tile with a gold dot, has both, so it goes in the middle.
The usual wrong pick is D. Its ring around the dot looks extra busy, and the ring echoes the circle outline on the tile outside, but a ring is not stripes. D belongs in the dot-only part with the first example. B is the other trap: it is striped but has no dot, so it sits in the stripes-only part.
Quick check: the tile outside both rings has only an empty circle, no dot and no stripes, which confirms that an outline does not count as either feature.
Learn the method: Process of Elimination in Puzzles: Rule Out Until One Is Left
