It's known that the United States is smaller than Canada but larger than Mexico. But in this puzzle that's not true. Can you figure out how this list was made?
Replace the question marks with the correct numbers.
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1 Answer
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4
The areas are:
U.S.A.: 6 units
Mexico: 3 units
Canada: 2 units
The grid:
There are 5×5 dots in the grid plus one extra dot. These represent the 26 Latin letters with A at the top left and Z at the extra position at the lower right.
The shape of the flags:
The flags are triangular. That is a hint that we are looking for the area of triangles.
The names of the countries:
We need three points to draw a triangle, so let's call these countries by their three-letter codes: USA, MEX, CAN.
A simplified map of North America:
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$\begingroup$ Damn I thought this might have been the answer but i wasn’t sure! $\endgroup$– PDTCommented Jan 15 at 13:48
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$\begingroup$ nice puzzle and answer. sorry for being stupid, but how do you work out the 6,3, and 2 areas? $\endgroup$– sean47Commented Jan 18 at 21:00
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$\begingroup$ @sean47: Half the length of the base line times the height. Or half the absolute cross product of two sides. The reference unit is the area of one "cell". The whole grid (minus the "tail" at Z) is 16 units. But in the end, the exact values don't matter as long as USA > MEX > CAN. $\endgroup$– M OehmCommented Jan 18 at 21:47