The math challenge that left experts and social media users speechless

A math exercise for elementary school children has become a viral phenomenon, baffling teachers, parents, and puzzle enthusiasts. It went viral as a seemingly simple challenge, but has sparked intense debate on social media due to its confusing wording and apparent lack of key information.

The problem was shared on Threads by Bobby Seagull, a well-known British professor and television presenter best known for his appearance on the show University Challenge. He explained that the problem came from the homework book of a friend's seven-year-old son. He wrote, "I'm a math teacher... and I can't solve this," accompanying the message with a photo of the prompt: "Any ideas? Am I missing something?"

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The question, taken literally, reads: “Dina is baking. The cake bakes from 11:00 to 11:30. The brownies bake from 11:10 to 11:35. Do you agree with Dina? Explain your answer.”

On the surface, this is an exercise in timetable interpretation, but it lacks an essential element, as it doesn't specify what Dina said, and without that statement, it's impossible to determine whether one agrees with her or not. This has led numerous users to point out that it's not a conventional math problem, but rather an example of incomplete writing.

Seagull's Threads post quickly went viral, garnering thousands of interactions and dozens of different interpretations. Some tried to deduce what Dina might have said based on the data, such as that the cake takes 30 minutes and the brownies 25, or that the baking times partially overlap. Others pointed out that perhaps the exercise was part of a series of questions, and that the full statement wasn't in the image.

Among the most commented reactions, several users asked, "What's the real question?", while others joked, "These are statements, not questions," and some even suggested that the instruction might have been mistranslated by the teacher or that a key line had been omitted.

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Other comments focused on the way the time was written in English , using expressions like "25 to 12" to refer to 11:35, something unusual in everyday life outside the UK. There was also criticism of the alleged inconsistency in baking times: if the cake takes 30 minutes and the brownies 25, why did some comments indicate that the latter should take longer?

Amid the confusion, some pointed out the basic rule many teachers repeat in class: "Read the entire question before attempting to answer." For some, this reinforced the idea that the key to the exercise lay in a previous section not included in the distributed image.

While the publication continues to generate debate, the truth is that the challenge has demonstrated that even seemingly simple exercises can baffle experts when presented ambiguously. It has also highlighted the importance of accurately wording school problems, especially in the early stages of education, where reading comprehension is as important as mathematical ability. Although the "official" answer is mentioned in the original publication, the true value of this challenge has been in the discussion it sparked: a global conversation about how we teach, interpret, and solve problems. A reminder that, in mathematics as in life, understanding the question well is always the first step to finding the solution. DANIEL HERNÁNDEZ NARANJO

Portfolio Journalist