Question:hard

Two tiles are missing in Panel I. Which one of the options in Panel II is the appropriate choice for the missing tiles?

Show Hint

Count the filled dots in each tile and look for a magic square pattern.
Updated On: Jul 28, 2026
  • (i)
  • (ii)
  • (iii)
  • (iv)
Show Solution

The Correct Option is A

Solution and Explanation

Step 1: Recognize the layout as a magic square in disguise.
Replace each 3x3 dot tile by the number of black dots it contains. Reading off the 7 visible tiles of Panel I gives the grid: 8, 1, 6 on top; 3, 5 and a question mark in the middle; 4, 9 and a question mark at the bottom.

Step 2: Recall the property of this square.
This is the well known Lo Shu magic square, built from the digits 1 to 9 with every row, column and both diagonals summing to $15$.
The completed square reads $8, 1, 6$ on top, $3, 5, 7$ in the middle, and $4, 9, 2$ at the bottom.

Step 3: Read off the two missing values.
The middle-right tile must show $7$ filled dots and the bottom-right tile must show $2$ filled dots, since these are the only values that keep every row and column at $15$.

Step 4: Check each option's dot counts.
Option (i) shows 7 filled dots on top and 2 filled dots below, matching the required pair exactly. Options (ii) and (iv) show only 6 dots in the upper tile, and option (iii) shows 3 dots in the lower tile instead of 2.

Final Answer:
The tile pair with counts 7 and 2 belongs to option (i), so that is the correct completion of Panel I. \[ \boxed{\text{Answer} = \text{(i)}} \]
Was this answer helpful?
0