This fifth-grade math question is an absolute head-scratcher prompting hilarious responses

Math can be a tough subject for many, and exam questions don’t always make it easier. For some, the anxiety around math lingers well into adulthood. One Reddit user, u/springwaterh20, recently shared a math question from their fifth-grade brother’s exam, and it’s sparked a flood of hilarious reactions. While a few commenters managed to solve it, most responded with a mix of humor and mild panic. Many adults were shocked to discover that this head-scratcher was meant for elementary schoolers.

The post included the question, which 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?” According to the post, students were allowed to bring the test home for corrections—and even the fifth-grader’s dad was stumped. “My dad sent this to me because he couldn’t figure it out. I had to sit down and write this one out,” the user shared in a comment. As people tried to crack the mystery of Klein’s book, others couldn't resist poking fun at the elusive “Klein” in some truly hilarious ways.

"The whole thing stems from an assumption that Klein started the book on Monday. This is not explicitly stated. He could've been reading that book for a week before Monday - we only have Monday’s page count. Now how do you people who were able to answer a fifth-grade fraction problem feel?" said u/VinterKnightSr. To this, the original poster replied, "You are correct. The 5th-grade students were actually supposed to model the number of pages using a probability density function. No one got it right." u/DirectionNew5328 jokingly said, "Why didn’t Klein just read the remaining 18 pages on Monday? Klein is lazy," to which the user quipped, "He’s got a lot of bottled-up stuff going on, okay?"

Many, including the user who posted the problem, eventually solved it. Since Klein read 3/8 of the book on Tuesday and Wednesday, he must've read 5/8 of the book on Monday, which was 30 pages. So, if 5/8 of the book was 30 pages, the total number of pages in the book was 48. "The problem is though, of course, I used algebra to set up and solve this, and I assume this would have been cheating since 5th graders probably don’t know how to solve for things algebraically yet," the individual said. They felt that it was too advanced for a fifth-grader and many could relate to this opinion. 

On a similar note, a Harvard math entrance exam from 1869 when calculators weren't allowed baffled the internet. Anthony Bonato—who goes by @Anthony_Bonato on X—a Canadian professor shared a picture of the Harvard math entrance exam that was over 150 years old. Considering the fact that no calculators were allowed during exams back then, people were stunned at the long-form arithmetic, logarithm and trigonometry questions.

This article originally appeared 3 months ago.