Second-grade student’s math question completely baffles her mother and the internet

Math isn’t everyone’s favorite subject. Some people excel, while others struggle with even the basics. But like it or not, having some math skills is essential for daily life. One mother, struggling to help her second-grade daughter with a tricky math question, decided to turn to Reddit for help from strangers.

The new question builds off a previous one shown in the photo: "200 + 60 + 9 = 269." Now, students are asked to "stretch" their thinking by creating an addition equation that meets specific conditions: it must include a 1-digit, a 2-digit, and a 3-digit number, and use all the digits. The mother explained in the caption that her daughter's teacher required an answer using these exact numbers, but she couldn’t figure out the solution.

She writes, "This is probably so easy, but after an hour, I'm at my wit's end! Second grade! Please help this mama out." People who saw the post stepped up to help her. A Reddit user made an important observation about the answer to the previous question, saying, "Note that the previous question is wrong. You only have 2 hundreds, not 200 hundreds. Likewise, you have 6 tens, not 60 tens." The mother replied to the post, thanking the individual for spotting the error. u/WaycoKid1129 hilariously expressed, "I read this and got anxiety. I do not miss math class."

Many others provided answers, but it was u/RevolutionaryAtWork who gave the most credible response by revealing the three numbers to be "800, 60, and 2," which would satisfy all the conditions mentioned in the question. The mother replied to the comment, thanking them by saying, "Dear u/RevolutionaryAtWork, why did you make it look so easy! We were about to start WWIII over here and you just whipped it out like the obvious that it is. Thank you for saving my tired brain and also my child’s teacher from a very wordy email. You win hero of the day! Sincerely, parenting in the month of May s**ks."

The internet seems to be filled with confusing math questions. A few months back, @MarkLTighe posted a tweet containing a seemingly simple math question that eventually confused a lot of people. He wrote, "Hmm. Controversial ruling from the múinteoir here on 'How many corners does a semicircle have'." The question was - how many corners a semicircle has? The answer that the child provided was two, which the teacher marked incorrect. People were quite divided about the actual answer to the question.

@NIAMHBL said, "In geometry, a semicircle is a plane figure that is formed by dividing a circle into exactly two parts. A corner is a place or angle where two sides or edges meet. So the answer is yes, the semicircle has two corners where the curved semi-circumference meets the straight diameter." Another individual, @PoliticsWatch14, commented, "A semicircle, by definition, has no corners because corners are points where two or more edges meet at an angle, and the perimeter of a semicircle consists of one straight edge called the diameter and one curved edge called the arc. Therefore, the correct answer to the question would be that a semicircle has 0 corners." Although, nobody seemed to have a final concrete answer to the question.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on February 27, 2024. It has since been updated.