Missing Number

[DHEERAJTYAGI]

8 14 ?
26 37 28
12 15 11
Please tell me answer and why

[JJ109]

I was asked this same question a number of months ago (if not years ago). I could not answer it then, and I cannot answer it now!

However, when I was asked before, four multiple choice answers were also given. Therefore the answer is one of
a) 10, B) 12, C) 15, D) 17

Lets hope some maths wizard on here can assist you further

[wolf63]

I make the answer 15

8 14 15
26 37 28
12 15 11 wrong

I tried this and thought that I had worked it out, the first two groups of numbers worked, but the third didn't.

8 x 2 = 16
16 – 14 = 2
2 + 13 = 15

26 x 2 = 52
52 – 37 = 15
15 + 13 = 28

12 x 2 = 24
24 – 15 = 9
9 + 13 = 22 - wrong

I have no idea if I am barking at the wrong tree or not even in the right forest.

[IJKLM]

The question is posed on an Indian exam/cheat sheet site here:
https://www.examveda.com/8-14-26-37-28-12-15-11-49367/
It gives the same multiple choice options outlined by JJ. One answer suggest 15. Like Wolf, I can't make that work either.

I cannot see this one at all. Nothing mathematical (arithmetic) works. At least nothing I can think of.

Can't see any arithmetic series; can't see any geometric series, or exponential series

They're not fibonacci numbers, or triangular or square numbers. They’re not the digits of pi or e or any familiar square roots or other surds. There are a couple of primes with 6 non-primes

The closest I can get is answer=7 by taking it as columns and subtracting the sum of the top and bottom entries from the middle row.
Column 1 gives 6; column 2 gives 8, so column 3 could be 10.
Obviously not the right answer, given the multiple choice options.

I even tried summing the tens and digits units and playing with those by reversing them and using them as different entries independently. Then I tried working it in base 16 (Thought it might be for programmers)

On that theme, I tried changing the numbers for letters modulo 26. No joy.
I even looked up the ASCII/Unicode characters represented by the codes, but the meaningful characters start at 32 and go up from there, and there is no obvious patern to the characters given by the codes in the question. In any case, the Unicodes tend to be in Hex

I don't think it is dates or times, because either the middle column or middle row has too many entries above 12 or 24. Conceivably it could be three times: 8h26m12s ; 14h37m15s and ?h28m11s (or possibly the reverse: 12h26m8s etc), but I can't think of many things that precise.

I thought the last line might represent recent years (2012; 2015 and 2011), but I can't make that work.

I'm left with the numbers representing words in a poem or speech, but that is also pretty unsatisfactory, because 37 is quite a long quote or excerpt.

Or maybe it involves a cultural reference that is well-known in India, but less so in the UK.

Sorry - wish I could be of more help

[aelmpvw]

i admire your perseverence IJKLM, hope someone comes up with the answer

[fiction-factory]

The best i could do was 7 too but as that wasn't on teh list i gave up. 7 actually worked in two ways-
Taking each column, middle minus (top + bottom) gives a sequence going up in 2s (6,8, 10)
It also means the two diagonals both add up to 56.
But that seems weak

I gave up after that as normally these things have a fairly obvious answer

[wolf63]

I even tried asking Uncle Google - he didn't know the answer either.

[fiction-factory]

Where has the question come from Dheerajtyagi?
I think there is a good chance there is an error in the typing of question or the setter has simply got it all wrong

[IJKLM]

Any F1 buffs out there?

Lewis Hamilton won the F1 Drivers' Championships in 2008, 2014, 2015 (and 2017).
No idea where the other numbers might have come from: number of wins? Number of points?

Very much a long shot!