Welcome to a fun and intriguing brain teaser that will test your math skills.
Have you ever wondered how much your favorite furry friends weigh together?
Today, we have a delightful picture puzzle featuring three adorable animals.
In this illustration, you can see a clever raccoon, a sleek black cat, and a happy golden dog.
They are taking turns sitting on a vintage weighing scale to show us their combined weights.
Our goal is simple, but it requires a bit of logical thinking.
We need to figure out the final question mark: what is the total weight when all three animals stand on the scale together?
Let us take a close look at the picture step by step.
The puzzle is divided into four clean panels, each showing a different combination of animals on the scale.
In the top-left panel, we see the fluffy raccoon sitting right beside the black cat.
The digital readout on the scale clearly shows a weight of 10 kilograms.
This means that the weight of the raccoon plus the weight of the cat equals 10 kilograms.
Now, let us move over to the top-right panel.
Here, the raccoon is sitting on the scale next to the smiling golden dog.
The scale pointer points to a higher number this time, showing 20 kilograms.
So, the combined weight of the raccoon and the dog is equal to 20 kilograms.
Next, look down at the bottom-left panel.
This time, the black cat and the golden dog are sharing the scale platform.
The scale displays a total weight of 24 kilograms.
That tells us the weight of the cat plus the weight of the dog equals 24 kilograms.
Finally, we arrive at the bottom-right panel, which contains the big question.
All three friends—the raccoon, the cat, and the dog—are sitting together on the scale platform.
Below the scale, there is a question mark followed by kilograms.
So, how can we solve this puzzle without getting confused?
There are actually two fantastic ways to solve this problem, and both are very easy to follow.
Let us start with the fastest and smartest trick first.
Notice that across the first three panels, every animal appears exactly two times.
The raccoon is on the scale in panel one and panel two.
The cat is on the scale in panel one and panel three.
The dog is on the scale in panel two and panel three.
If we add the numbers from all three panels together, we are counting each animal twice.
Let us sum up the three given numbers: 10 plus 20 plus 24.
10 kilograms plus 20 kilograms equals 30 kilograms.
Then, 30 kilograms plus 24 kilograms gives us a total of 54 kilograms.
Remember, this sum of 54 kilograms represents two raccoons, two cats, and two dogs combined.
Since we only want the weight of one raccoon, one cat, and one dog, we simply divide 54 by 2.
54 divided by 2 equals exactly 27 kilograms.
That is our answer, but let us double-check our work by finding the weight of each individual animal.
Let us start with the cat and the dog from panel three, who weigh 24 kilograms together.
We know from panel one that the raccoon and the cat weigh 10 kilograms, and from panel two that the raccoon and the dog weigh 20 kilograms.
If the raccoon plus the dog is 20 kilograms, and the raccoon plus the cat is 10 kilograms, the dog must be 10 kilograms heavier than the cat.
We can set up a simple calculation: two cats plus 10 kilograms equals 24 kilograms.
Subtract 10 from 24, which leaves us with 14 kilograms for two cats.
Dividing 14 by 2 tells us that the black cat weighs 7 kilograms.
Now that we know the cat weighs 7 kilograms, we can easily find the raccoon’s weight from the first panel.
10 kilograms minus 7 kilograms gives us 3 kilograms for the raccoon.
Next, we can find the dog’s weight from the second panel.
20 kilograms minus 3 kilograms gives us 17 kilograms for the dog.
Let us check if these individual weights make complete sense in all panels.
Raccoon (3 kg) plus Cat (7 kg) equals 10 kg, which matches panel one.
Raccoon (3 kg) plus Dog (17 kg) equals 20 kg, which matches panel two.
Cat (7 kg) plus Dog (17 kg) equals 24 kg, which matches panel three.
Finally, let us add all three individual weights together for panel four.
3 kilograms plus 7 kilograms plus 17 kilograms equals 27 kilograms.
Both methods give us the exact same result, proving our logic is 100 percent correct.
