[Guest]

Help! I don't even know WHERE to start! I have this picture with seven symbols in a column. The instructions read:

On his latest archaeological dig, Professor Babu discovered some kind of ancient writing. Can you help him decipher the meaning for each symbol and therefore determine the missing symbol in this curious sequence?

How do I "decipher the meaning for each symbol?" There's no other information. The symbols are as follows:

Letter M

Heart with horizontal line underlining it

Two ovals stacked on top of each other (looks like an "8")

Letter M with a horizontal line through the middle of it

Horizontal line with a short perpendicular line from the center of the horizontal line, connecting to an oval

Two circles touching side by side with two arches going opposite directions out of the top crease connecting circles

Upside down triangle

What looks like an "8" laying on its side but hiding from a piece of foreground. This is the symbol I need to decipher.

How do I start? How can I figure out symbols without knowing any history about them?

Thanks for ANY help!

[Wilson]

Hey Pippy,

Covering the left hand side of your column with a piece of paper.

[Guest]

it sounds like each symbol is a mirror image of the numbers 1-8

[Guest]

I just recreated these symbols on a post-it note and it's really cool when you slide a sheet of paper in front of the symbols. As soon as the pattern became obvious, it was hard not to laugh at myself for not getting it right away.

I'm tempted to spend some time doing the same thing with 0-9A-Z, but I have a feeling some letters and numbers would quickly give away the trick.

Edited January 19, 2011 by Egghead