An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #48: Unusual tag mix
Which famous chemist is represented by these flags? Go big or go home!
Puzzling Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for those who create, solve, and study puzzles. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityAn entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #48: Unusual tag mix
Which famous chemist is represented by these flags? Go big or go home!
The answer is
RUTHERFORD
The flags are
Argentina, Seychelles, Canada, Austria.
Arkansas, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Solomon Islands, P&O
These have the two letter codes
AR, SC, CA, AT.
AR, PM, SB, PO.
These correspond to atomic symbols for
Argon, Scandium, Calcium, Astatine,
Argon, Promethium, Antimony, Polonium.
Which have atomic numbers
18, 21, 20, 85, 18, 61, 51, 84.
These numbers don't quite correspond to letters of the alphabet but we can look at it as representing a sequence of digits which can be split up in an alternative way as follows,
18, 21, 20, 8, 5, 18, 6, 15, 18, 4.
This spells RUTHERFORD (where each number represents the position in the alphabet of the corresponding letter).