Simple Year 5 maths question has stumped thousands of adults

14 September 2023 , 07:10

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Many struggled to work out the maths problem

School may seem like a long time ago, and you may not think you need the knowledge you learned back then, but it's always nice to know all the time you spent on it hasn't gone to waste. But thousands of adults have been left wondering whether they were actually paying attention in school after a Year 5 maths exam question left them stumped.

The tricky question, which was intended for 10 to 11 year olds, has recently resurfaced on Reddit, asked students to find out exactly how many pages there were in a book. It might seem like a very simple mathematical equation - but only the most intelligent and logical were able to answer it.

Can you work it out?

The question read: "Klein read 30 pages of a book on Monday and one eighth of the book on Tuesday. He completed the remaining quarter of the book on Wednesday. How many pages are there in the book?"

Many were left absolutely baffled by the question, and some came to the realisation that if they were to retake fifth grade maths, they would fail. One person said: "And now we can all see why Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? worked as a game show."

Another added: "Today I learned I would fail fifth grade math" while a third added: "I always think to my self; 'Ugh. People should really be tested with basic skills before they're allowed to go out into society'. And then I see this and realise I shouldn't go out into society LOL."

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However, not everyone thought the maths problem was too difficult to answer - including a person with a PhD in engineering with a focus on mathematics. The social media user explained that the key to working out the problem is that because Klein read the last quarter on the Wednesday, he must have read three-quarters, which is six-eights on the previous days.

Explaining how he came to an answer, he explained: "But he only read one-eight on Tuesday. So he must've read the other five-eights on Monday. We're told he read 30 pages on Monday. We know he read five-eights of the book on Monday. So 30 pages = five-eights of the book. So how much is an eighth of the book? We know 30 pages is five-eights. 30 pages divided by five is six pages. So a unit of six pages is one-eights of the book. The book therefore is eight units of six pages = eight times six = 48 pages long."

Others said the problem wasn't hard to work out at all, and simply explained: "1/8+1/4=3/8 so 5/8 is 30, meaning 1/8 is 6. 6x8 is 48." Our brains hurt after all that brainpower..

Did you manage to work out the maths problem? Let me know in the comment section below.

Ariane Sohrabi-Shiraz