Are you smarter than a fifth grader? The Internet recently encountered an elementary-level math problem, and many people had to dust off their brains that they hadn’t used for a long time.
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For many, mathematics education dates back to the turn of the century. On Reddit, a user posted one of his brother’s math exam questions, who is currently in fifth grade.
“Klein read 30 pages of a book on Monday and 1/8 of the book on Tuesday. He finished the last 1/4 of the book on Wednesday. How many pages does the book have? can we read
It was enough for the Reddit community to speculate on the actual number of pages in Klein’s book (the answer is 48).
“I feel really stupid right now because I can’t understand it,” wrote one user after a calculation published in a previous comment.
“Why didn’t Klein read the last 18 pages on Monday? Small is lazy,” wrote another.
Creative – Fotolia
Some have instead turned to a search engine to find the answer, potentially saving them a headache.
For others, the problem was undoubtedly solved. This is the case for those who have learned algebra, one user points out. “It’s really not that difficult, but great for getting students to think and understand.”
Here is ChatGPT’s solution to the problem:
“Monday: Pages read = 30
Tuesday: pages read = 1/8 of the book
Wednesday: pages read = 1/4 of the book
Let P be the page number of the book. With the above information, we can write an equation: 30 + (1/8)P + (1/4)P = P
We can simplify by multiplying everything by 8 to get rid of fractions: 240 + P + 2P = 8P
Which can be simplified to: 240 = 5P
So: P = 48
So the book has 48 pages.
It doesn’t take Papineau’s head like the others would say!