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This is a puzzle posted on a social networking site that I have been trying hard since yesterday to solve:

Missing number puzzle

My approach has been to find out a mathematical function with the numbers in the yellow, green and purple segments as its arguments and the number in the blue segment as its output. However, I have failed to find out any such function on the basis of intuition. Of course I can interpolate, but it is generally not the preferable method for solving puzzles. So could anybody please help?

I am also interested to know if there is an algorithm to solve these puzzles in a human-like manner rather than by using interpolation.

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    $\begingroup$ hi, welcome to Puzzling stack exchange! Unfortunately, you will need to provide more attribution than simply "a social networking site". A link would be ideal, but if not, then at least the poster and the site itself. Otherwise, this question will be on hold for being off-topic. $\endgroup$
    – Prince North Læraðr
    May 29, 2020 at 2:09
  • $\begingroup$ Have you noticed the rotational of the first raw which could be relevant to the second raw? $\endgroup$
    – Moti
    May 30, 2020 at 17:12

2 Answers 2

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The answer is

7. I noticed that the numbers in the bottom-left circle were just a sum of the numbers in the top-middle and top-right circles in the same positions (not the same colors). Then the numbers in the bottom-right circle looked to be a sum of the numbers in the top-left and top-middle circles in the same positions, so the "?" must be 4+3 = 7.

It is easy to overthink this one, because

the colors have no (apparent) meaning and four numbers in each circle do not (apparently) relate to each other at all.

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My answer is that ?=7

The sums of the numbers around the circles are:

circle 1) 3+6+4+9=22

circle 2) 5+1+3+8=17

circle 3) 2+4+7+6=19      (36-22)/(19-17)=7

circle 4) 7+5+10+14=36

circle 5) 8+17+7+7=39

Finally, 22+17=39
         19+17=36
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