# Numbers in quadrants of a circle - help me solve it

I saw this puzzle and don't know how to solve it:

The only pattern I saw is 3 + 8 = 11 , 2 + 9 = 11, 6 + 2 = 8 and 1 + 7 = 8

Are there other approaches I should consider?

• Try calculating the angle between the clock hands when time is 3hr 6 min, 2 hr 1 min, check different combinations, also make sure the puzzle is correct – user9174 Jan 28 '15 at 8:34
• @Francisco did you find the solution by now? – Avigrail Mar 13 '15 at 12:14
• @Avigrail Not yet .. some different tip of attempts presented here? ty. – Francisco Mar 14 '15 at 0:18

I don't think is it but could be a start.. A bit like what you pointed out in the answer,

The numbers in the fifth circle show the difference between the corresponding quarter of the top-right and bottom-left circles. I.e. 8 - 1 = 7, 9 - 3 = 6, 2 - 4 = (-)2

So maybe the question mark should be:

5 (which is 7-2)

because it fits this pattern, but that doesn't feel like a good answer.

All I found was a diagonal reference. You build the two differences (always positive) and chose the smaller one.

So for top left this would be '8' and '7',
top right '9' and '6',
bottom left '2' and again '2' (is this a sign?)

and following this rules, bottom right would be '7' and '5'.

• Hey that works, it's better than what I had because it uses all of the numbers in some way. – ladyofcats Jan 29 '15 at 0:11
• @ladyofcats yeah, but I still don't think this is the intended solution. – Avigrail Jan 29 '15 at 6:15

The answer comes from differences of numbers between the 2nd and 4th circle..

8-1=7
9-3=6
4-2=2

and the answer is 7-2 = 5

Οne pattern I see is the following:

[6+1]-[3+2]=2
[4+2]-[3+1]=4
[11+11]-[8+8]=6
[9+8]-[7+2]=8
[7+6]-[2+1]=10


From the addition and subtraction of these numbers we obtain the arithmetic progression: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. If we divide them by 2, then we can say they represent time on a clock: 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm, 5 pm.