Flags with the same colours
A flag is more than its colours. Turn one into a pie chart, though, and only two things survive: which colours it uses and how much of each. Layout, order and shape all disappear. That is the puzzle at the heart of The Flag Slice, and it means some flags become impossible to tell apart.
These are the pairs and groups that catch people out most often, with the numbers The Flag Slice measures for each.
Red over white, white over red
Indonesia, Monaco and Poland all measure 50% red and 50% white.
Indonesia and Monaco are the famous pair: both are a red band above a white band. They differ only in shape. Indonesia's flag is 2:3, Monaco's is 4:5, and the shape of the cloth never reaches a pie chart. Poland is the same two bands the other way up, white above red. Flip a flag and its pie stays the same.
Two more countries join the group in the game's measurements. Singapore and Malta are mostly red and white too, and their emblems (Singapore's crescent and stars, Malta's George Cross) cover so little of the flag that they fold into the surrounding colour.
Blue, yellow and red: Romania and Chad
Romania and Chad are three vertical bands, blue, yellow and red, in the same order. Both measure a third of each colour. Up close, Chad's blue is a little darker. On a pie, the two are the same flag.
Romania's tricolour has a long history in the country, and Chad adopted its flag on independence. Neither copied the other, which is the usual story with matching flags: a small set of colours, a popular layout, and many countries choosing independently.
Mirror images: Ireland and Côte d'Ivoire
Ireland is green, white and orange from the flagpole outwards. Côte d'Ivoire is orange, white and green: the same three bands in reverse order. Its proportions differ too, but a pie only sees a third of each colour, so the two give identical slices.
The same mirroring happens across the pan-African colours. Mali is green, yellow and red; Guinea is red, yellow and green. Both measure a third each, and they share that pie with several other flags.
Three horizontal stripes of red, white and blue
The red, white and blue horizontal tricolour is common enough that it forms one of the largest groups of all. The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Russia are a third red, a third white and a third blue. Luxembourg's blue is lighter than the Netherlands', and Russia's stripes run white, blue, red, but none of that changes the proportions.
How The Flag Slice keeps it fair
Matching pies would make a daily puzzle unfair if only one answer counted. So the game measures every flag before it can appear, and groups together the flags whose pies cannot be told apart at the precision the pie shows.
- Any flag in the group is accepted. If today's pie is Romania's and you answer Chad, you are right. The reveal then names the other flags that matched.
- The clue settles it. The paid clue tells you what kind of place the flag belongs to and where. Once you have read it, the flag list narrows to the one that is meant.
- Easy puzzles avoid twins. The first, easy tier of each daily set only uses flags whose pie is unique.
How to tell twins apart when it matters
Outside the game, the differences that a pie hides are the ones to look for:
- Order and direction. Poland is white on top; Indonesia is red on top. Ireland starts with green at the flagpole; Côte d'Ivoire starts with orange.
- Shade. Chad's blue is darker than Romania's. Luxembourg's is lighter than the Netherlands'.
- Shape. Monaco's flag is squarer than Indonesia's, at 4:5 against 2:3.
- Small emblems. Malta's George Cross and Singapore's crescent and stars are easy to miss at a distance, but they are what make those flags unique.