maths puzzle

This maths puzzle meant for 10-year-olds has got everyone feeling really stupid right now

Just take me back to primary school why don’t you?


Guys, it turns out we all might not be smarter than a 10-year-old at all because there’s a new maths question doing the rounds that is meant for 10-year olds and it’s leaving everyone absolutely stumped.

The question was posted on Reddit as an older brother was stuck helping his 11-year-old sibling with his maths homework.”A test problem on my 5th-grade brother’s math exam,” he said.

The question, meant for literal 10 and 11-year-olds, reads: “Klein read 30 pages of a book on Monday and 1/8 of the book on Tuesday. He completed the remaining 1/4 of the book on Wednesday. How many pages are there in the book?”

maths puzzle

People have been losing their minds after realising that they cannot in fact answer a maths puzzle meant for children. One person said: “And now we can see why Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader worked as a TV show!” Someone else added: “Today I learned I would fail fifth-grade maths”.

But it took someone with a whole PhD to put us all out of our misery and solve the problem.

Spoiler alert: Stop scrolling if you don’t want the answer revealed!

Someone on Reddit, with a PhD in engineering with a focus on applied mathematics, said the question wasn’t difficult but you had to assume that our friend Klein started reading the book on Monday. You then divide 30 pages by five to see how many pages one-eighth of the book is, which is six. You then just times six by eight to get the answer: 48.

Happily take me back to primary school right now, please.

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