A seven-year-old’s maths homework has sent social media users into a spiral as they try to figure out the answer – with some claiming it’s impossible while others believe there’s a mistake lurking in the question
People have been left scratching their heads over a tricky homework question aimed at seven-year-olds. The maths problem has sparked a debate on social media as adults try to figure out the answer, with some giving up and claiming ‘it doesn’t make sense’. Sharing it on Reddit, a user said: “My friend’s daughter’s homework has us confused. I’m trying to make sure that I’m at least on the right track here so hoping someone can explain this to me.”
The problem reads: “There are 12 kids on a school bus. Some of them are boys. The rest of them are girls. How many boys are on the bus? How many girls are on the bus?” Having spent some time trying to work it out, the user is adamant something is missing from the question, making it impossible to solve.
They added: “This is from a first grader’s homework. From my understanding, “some” in mathematics can mean 1 and include all of, in this case, the kids. This would mean that there isn’t enough information, right? The way I’m looking at it is: 12-x=y or x+y=12. But you can’t get an answer for the boys or girls because there is no quantity given for either.”
Confused, they asked: “Can someone please either verify that I’m right or explain to me what I’m missing?” While most users tried their best to work it out, others claim there’s a mistake in the question. One user said: “Makes no sense as you’ve written it, indeed! And yeah it’s too complicated for a first-grader to be expected to fill in the abstract solution. Probably just a typo or deletion in editing, as long as there’s no other information elsewhere.”
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Another user added: “There are “some” boys on the bus and 12 – “some” girls on the bus. That’s about all you can know for sure.” One more user said: “Given this is first grade they obviously aren’t looking for an algebraic answer. My guess is they expect the kid to just pick a number for the boys or girls – ‘I think there are 4 boys’ – and given that then figure out how many girls there are.”
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