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Saw this question and couldn't help but make it into a different riddle.

China has three more than Chile

Algeria has one less than Nigeria

Ireland and Iceland...? Are they even different?

HINT

The numbers are only correct as of this writing, they might change in the future (though unlikely)

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    $\begingroup$ I thought I had a reason but it doesn't work for the second line! $\endgroup$
    – Tom
    Commented Mar 9, 2019 at 19:56
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    $\begingroup$ @Tom, exactly what I thought for the original question, so I made my reason into a question instead. $\endgroup$
    – panda-34
    Commented Mar 9, 2019 at 19:58
  • $\begingroup$ That's a nice question with a well chosen hint. Line 2 was correctly clued! $\endgroup$
    – Tom
    Commented Mar 9, 2019 at 20:26

1 Answer 1

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Analyzing this it seems to be counting the number of different

chemical element symbols consecutively contained in the word.

China has three more than Chile

We may compare by looking at the last three letters:
ina has Iodine (I), Indium (In), Nitrogen (N) and Sodium (Na), while ile has only Iodine (I).

Algeria has one less than Nigeria

Then the first three letters:
Alg has only Aluminium (Al), while Nig has Nitrogen (N) and Nickel (Ni) - we don't count Iodine (I) again as Nigeria already has it.

Ireland and Iceland...? Are they even different?

The first three letters:
Ire has Iodine (I), Iridium (Ir) and Rhenium (Re), while Ice has Iodine (I), Carbon (C) and Cerium (Ce).
Hence Ireland = Iceland which is fair and elementary :P

HINT:The numbers are only correct as of this writing, they might change in the future (though unlikely)

New elements are discovered and named, but it's unlikely they would have symbols contained in the bolded letters.

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    $\begingroup$ We don't count I in line 2 because Algeria already has it. $\endgroup$
    – panda-34
    Commented Mar 9, 2019 at 20:31

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