If you’re looking to sharpen your math skills again, this tricky equation is perfect for you.
An exam question aimed at schoolchildren aged 10 to 11 years is causing major problems for adults on the American forum Reddit.
The complicated question has attracted thousands of attempts and almost 10,000 responses, with one adult saying it made them feel ‘really stupid’.
An anonymous user said it was a “test problem on my brothers’ 5th grade math exam,” before posting a screenshot of the sequence.
It said: ‘Klein read 30 pages of a book on Monday and 1/8 of the book on Tuesday. On Wednesday he completed the remaining quarter of the book. How many pages are there in the book?’
A math exam question aimed at schoolchildren aged 10 to 11 years is causing major problems for adults on the American forum Reddit. (Image: Stock photo of a difficult algebra equation)
The question led many to find the right answer, while others seemed clearly frustrated.
Meanwhile, some people revisited their memories and discussed the math methods they used to do math homework at school.
Perhaps even more hilarious, some users didn’t answer the question, while others didn’t answer it at all.
Those who answered the question correctly explained that the logic was all in the ‘units’, and that they used step-by-step analysis to arrive at your answer.
Most adults unanimously agreed that the correct answer was 48 pages.
The top comment – liked 7,300 times – shows the correct answer: ‘one book = 30 pages + 1/8 book + 1/4 book. One book = 30 pages + 3/8 book. One book – 3/8 book = 30 pages. 5/8 book = 30 pages. One book = 48 pages’.
Someone agreed with the answer and said, “Yes, exactly. My mental process was that he read the last 1/4 on Wednesday, so he must have read 3/4, which is 6/8 the previous days. But he only read 1/8 on Tuesday. So he must have read the other 5/8 on Monday.
An anonymous user said it was a “test problem on my brothers’ 5th grade math exam,” before posting a screenshot of the sequence. Most adults unanimously agreed that the correct answer was 48 pages
“We’re told he read 30 pages on Monday. We know he read 5/8 of the book on Monday. So 30 pages = 5/8 of the book. So how much is an eighth of the book? We know that 30 pages is 5/8. 30 pages divided by five is six pages. So a unit of six pages is 1/8 of the book. So the book consists of eight units of six pages, which equals eight multiplied by six = 48 pages long.
“Kudos for showing units,” one replied. “This is the clearest answer,” replied another.
Meanwhile, the test question made someone feel ‘stupid’: ‘I feel really stupid now because I can’t understand how you get 5/8 out of 30’.
In an updated post, they continued: “Thank you everyone for your responses. I still feel a little stupid, but not that bad.’
Someone else was stunned: ‘It took me so long to see it. For a long time I thought it was just him reading another quarter on Wednesdays, and I was baffled as to how anyone could figure out the actual length of the book from this.’
One person joked, “Why didn’t Klein just read the remaining 18 pages on Monday? Small is lazy’.