Find the logic in first 2 statements to give the answer for the third statement

There are 3 statements. This is a logical question, so you need to use the first two statements as an example to find the answer for the last statement.

tea + rainbow = 9

tree + hand = 8

pancake + solar system =?

This might be one that falls under “too broad”, but:

Using (# of letters in Word 1) + (# of items in Word 2) - 1 should get you to an answer, however poorly defined it might be.

Examples:

tea + rainbow = 3 letters in tea + 7 colours of the rainbow - 1 = 9
tree + hand = 4 letters in tree + 5 digits on hand - 1 = 8
pancake + solar system = 7 letters in pancake + 8 planets in solar system (sorry Pluto) - 1 = 14.

Pancake + Solar System = 14.

Since there are just two examples, and it's just mathematical/logical we can simply do this:

8.5 + 0.5*((#vowels in word 2) - (#vowels in word 1))

tea has 2 vowels
rainbow has 3 vowels
3 - 2 = 1
8.5 + 0.5 * 1 = 9

tree has 2 vowels
hand has 1 vowel
1 - 2 = -1
8.5 + 0.5 * -1 = 8

That means the answer to pancake + solar system is:

8.5 + 0.5 * (3 - 3) = 8.5

Of course this is a nonsense answer because we can utilise this way of reasoning with any number of examples, by using higher order functions.

• Yep, this is the kind of alternate answer I was anticipating— great creativity! +1 Aug 30, 2019 at 17:14

Another solution that works for the example is

pancake + solar system = 16

Theory:

#(characters in word 1) + #(characters in word 2) - #(letters used in both words)

Examples:

tea + rainbow = 3 + 7 - 1 (because of a) = 9
tree + hand = 4 + 4 = 8 (no letters shared)
pancake + solar system = 7 + 11 - 2 (because of a and e) = 16

• Nice one. Tons of these can be applied to this kind of question with few examples Aug 31, 2019 at 12:19

The number of different letters in the word pair

tea + rainbow = 9

tree + hand = 8


pancake + solar system = 13 (panckesolrytm)

• tree + hand $\ne$ 8: there are two copies of the letter 'e'. Aug 31, 2019 at 1:14
• @SayedMohdAli Although poorly formatted (no spoiler tags), this answer was posted before 53RT's Aug 31, 2019 at 16:12
• @bg6471 yes, this one can also work if he tries to explain better and with proper formatting... Aug 31, 2019 at 16:26