Tricky math exam question aimed at 10-year-olds stumps the internet – so are YOU smarter than a fifth grader?
- Question was submitted on Reddit page marked ‘mildly interesting’
- Challenging problem asks you to work out ‘how many pages are in a book’
- ‘TIL [Today I Learned] I would fail fifth grade math,’ responded one user
A tricky math exam question aimed at fifth graders has gone viral after perplexing thousands of people on the internet.
The challenging problem was posted to a Reddit group called ‘r/mildyinteresting community’ under the subject line: ‘A test problem on my 5th grade brother’s math exam’
The question, meant for students aged between 10 and 11, said: ‘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?’
Scores of commenters appeared to have no idea what the answer was, claiming they were almost certainly fail fifth grade math as adults.
Thankfully, others were quick off the mark to solve the tough equation and posted the answer – but can you work it out?
A Reddit user posed a challenging problem faced by their brother that appeared to stump thousands of commenters trying to solve it
The answer? Eight times six. The book has 48 pages.
As user ‘NorthernSparrow’ put it: ‘The key to solving the problem is realizing that, given the fractions, our reader read exactly five-eighths of the book on Monday’.
If the reader took in the final quarter of the book Wednesday (or two-eighths), they must have read three quarters of it before then – which is six-eighths.
The problem states they only read one-eighth on Tuesday, which means they must have read fifth eights on Monday as the Reddit user explains.
That means 30 pages of the book equals five eighths – so one eighth would be six.
While many Reddit users were stunned at the difficulty of the question – others mocked those commentators saying it wasn’t hard to work out at all.
One user cracked: ‘Apparently the mildly interesting part is out dumb the average Redditor is.’
Another said: ‘Right? Am I the only one who thinks OP [Original Poster] is a 5th grader posting his homework to Reddit so people respond with the answer?’
‘And now we can all see why ‘Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grade?’ worked as a gameshow,’ wrote one Reddit user
However, a user who was clearly confused by the question wrote: ‘TIL [Today I Learned] I would fail fifth grade math.’
‘And now we can all see why ‘Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grade?’ worked as a gameshow,’ added another.
This was a reference to the Fox and later Nickelodeon game show, which was hosted by Jeff Foxworthy from 2007 to 2011, before being revived in 2015 and again in 2019 with host John Cena.
The game used questions from grade levels first to fifth – and allowed adult contestants to seek help from a panel of fifth graders en route to a maximum grand prize of $1million.
If they failed, they were forced to say that they are ‘not smarter than a fifth grader.’
So if your fifth grader was able to solve this problem, it sounds like they might well stand a chance at starring on the show if it is ever revived again.
