# 4 sums of flags (Part 2)

The previous 'Sum of' puzzles can be found here and here

+ =

+ =

+ =

+ = ?

Which flag should replace the question mark?

Hint:

Hmmm, some of those country names are pretty long. If only we could do something about that...

The countries are:

China + Belgium = Latvia
Costa Rica + Canada = Russia
Slovenia + Brasil = ?

According to the hint, we should use abbreviations of the countries, though. Let's use the top level domains:

cn + be = lv
cr + ca = ru
pt + mg = th
si + br = ?

There doesn't seem to be a way of making these equations valid sums by converting bases or enumerating letters, but we can turn these abbreviations to numbers by ...

... considering them as symbols of chemical elements, whose atomic numbers we use:

Copernicum (112) + Beryllium (4) = Livermonium (116)
Chromium (24) + Calcium (20) = Ruthenium (44)
Platinum (78) + Magnesium (12) = Thorium (90)
Silicon (14) + Bromine (35) = Indium (49)

So the flag that should replace the question mark is ...

... the flag of a country whose TLD is in:

• Well done! I have stared at the numbers for the last half an hour trying to obtain some formula to make them work. – Cristian Marian Jun 1 '16 at 8:21
• Correct! Well done :) – Wu33o Jun 1 '16 at 9:51
• omg I totally failed on the belgium flag. i'm so ashamed >.< – Spacemonkey Jun 2 '16 at 19:57
• wait sv != si. (slovenia->silicon) – ev3commander Jun 5 '16 at 23:43
• .sv is El Salvador, .si is Slovenia – Rob Jun 6 '16 at 7:16