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I have constructed the following list of independent countries according to a secret pattern:

  1. Belgium
  2. Mexico
  3. Liechtenstein
  4. Ivory Coast
  5. Ethiopia
  6. United Kingdom
  7. Philippines
  8. ????????

Which country should go into position 8 on the list?
Which country would be a good candidate for position 12?
What is the secret pattern?

Hint: Although this is a list, there also is an important binary pattern behind it. It all boils down to being "in" or being "out". Who is IN? Who is OUT?

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    $\begingroup$ I'm going to guess #8 and #12 are both in the northwest hemisphere. From the CIA world factbook: Belgium (50 50 N, 4 00 E), Mexico (23 00 N, 102 00 W), Liechtenstein (47 16 N, 9 32 E), Ivory Coast (8 00 N, 5 00 W), Ethiopia (8 00 N, 38 00 E), United Kingdom (54 00 N, 2 00 W), Philippines (13 00 N, 122 00 E). $\endgroup$
    – Engineer Toast
    Feb 17, 2015 at 17:57
  • $\begingroup$ belgium is 7, mexico is 6, liechtenstein is 13. May be starting point. $\endgroup$
    – user9822
    Feb 26, 2015 at 18:25
  • $\begingroup$ What do those numbers mean though? $\endgroup$
    – Huangism
    Feb 26, 2015 at 19:16

1 Answer 1

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The pattern is :

i/I = 1 and o/O = 0. Just take the i's and o's from the country name and using their respective values 1 and 0, calculate the equivalent decimal values.

Examples :

Belgium -> 1
Mexico -> 10
Liechtenstein -> 11
Ivory Coast -> 100
Ethiopia -> 101
United Kingdom -> 110
Philippines -> 111

The countries at 8th and 12th position can be :

8(1000) -> Republic of the Congo 12(1100) -> Trinidad and Tobago

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