One country flag has been replaced with a question mark. Based on the theme of this puzzle, can you figure out which flag it is? The final answer to this puzzle is 10 letters long.
Hint 1: You may or may not have realized this but it's...
...1 vs 1.
Since there is a big bounty now, let me give you another hint.
Hint 2:
Besides identifying the flags, you gotta apply some knowledge unrelated to geography.
After reading all the comments and hints, my guess is to replace the question mark with the flag of:
Oman
My assumption to arrive at this answer was:
To extract the first two letters of each of the country names that these flags represent.
That will be:
Tanzania (Ta) Namibia (Na) Australia (Au) Oman (Om) Liechtenstein (Li) Iceland (Ic) Austria (Au) Belgium (Be) Algeria (Al)
As pointed out by others:
Australia will balance with Austria if you compare the atomic mass of Au with Au. Liechtenstein will go with Belgium as Li is lighter than Be. Namibia will go with Algeria as Na is lighter than Al.
Also:
Flag of Tanzania is reversed. So, I will take Ta as At.
Finally, since:
Australia, Liechtenstein and Namibia will move down, the flags representing At, Om and Ic will remain above which will imply that this puzzle is about
AtOmIc
Mass
Worth noting that:
Om and Ic are not symbols of any chemical elements but they just contribute in coining the name for this puzzle.
I hope I am right!
This is only a partial answer.
My first idea is:
Each flag is associated with an element on the periodic table. For example, Austria starts with Au, the symbol for gold.
This may explain why the flag of Tanzania is mirrored: you want to include the element Astatine with symbol At, but no country starts with At, so instead we are supposed to take the first two letters of Tanzania, Ta, and flip them to get At.
However, I'm a bit thrown off by Iceland, since there is no element with symbol Ic. I suppose we can just use Iodine, with symbol I.
In order, the five known flags at the top would then give us
1. Tanzania (mirrored) -> At (Astatine)
2. Namibia -> Na (Sodium)
3. Australia -> Au (Gold)
4. ?
5. Liechtenstein -> Li (Lithium)
6. Iceland -> I (Iodine)
and the three flags on the scales would give us
a. Austria -> Au (Gold)
b. Belgium -> Be (Beryllium)
c. Algeria -> Al (Aluminum)
My second thought is:
Each element has an atomic mass, which explains the weight part of the title (and the scales). The atomic masses are roughly
1. At (Astatine): 210
2. Na (Sodium): 23
3. Au (Gold): 197
4. ?
5. Li (Lithium): 7
6. I (Iodine): 127
and
a. Au (Gold): 197
b. Be (Beryllium): 9
c. Al (Aluminum): 27
Having both Australia and Austria correspond to gold could help explain why the scale with Austria is level, but I don't understand the specifics. I'm not quite sure where to go from here, or if I'm even on the right track.
The ideas above are a bit shaky, so I could be way off track.
