# What's the next pattern in the sequence?

there. I came across this puzzle in a primary school booklet for selective high school exams in Australia. Please help me find out the next pattern to appear in the sequence, as shown in the picture below. Thank you very much!

4th, because each of the three patterns in the question contains exactly four lines, and only the 4th option in the answer has four lines.

• Exactly my logic. I doubt whether there are other patterns beside this... – WhatsUp Oct 9 at 22:39
• Thank you, SamRoy and WhatsUp. I think that your logic is reasonable. Let's also to see how others think about it. – Michael May Oct 10 at 10:56

It could also be

3, since each figure must have an intersection of lines.

3. Because there are $$0,1,2$$ closed and equal shapes in each picture.

• Why not 2? Both 2 and 3 has 3 closed areas. @JMP – SamRoy Oct 10 at 14:28
• The 3 shapes are different in pic 2. @SamRoy – JMP Oct 10 at 15:13
• Ah.. That's correct. However, to say "equal" space, there is only 1 pattern to refer to, namely the 3rd one in question as for the first two, 0 or 1 shapes' equality does not mean anything. That's my understanding @JMP – SamRoy Oct 10 at 15:50
• Both 0 and 1 shapes are trivially equal. @SamRoy – JMP Oct 10 at 16:08

I would say:

4, because they are all composed from 4 straight lines.