Think about all those hours of our lives spent sitting in maths lessons right through from primary to GCSE – and further if you could bare it.
You’d think we’d all be math whizzes at this point, but it seems that’s not quite the case.
Sure, I can’t say I’ve ever had to use the ever-so important trigonometry and algebra my year 10 teacher argued would be a ‘vital skill’, but I like to think it’s tucked away in the brain somewhere.
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However, it seems it’s even the most ‘simple’ of maths questions that leave people baffled.
Users over on X have been struggling to wrap their heads round a kids’ exam question.
User @yawdmontweet shared a snap of the multiple-choice piece, writing: “Jah know start diss a hurt mi head.”
And the question really is pretty simple. But if you have even a tiny bit of doubt, it’ll really throw you into a spin.
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It asks: “What is the closest time to midnight?” So obviously, you need to know what actual time midnight is.
The answer choices are as follows:
A. 11:55am
B. 12:06am
C. 11:50am
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D. 12:03am
The tweet got hundreds of replies as users attempted to answer the children’s maths question.
One wrote: “11:55 AM lol.”
As another put: “The answer is clearly C because we can’t go back in time,” sparking up a whole other debate.
And someone else quipped: “The use of 'to' in this phrasing is confusing sensible ppl. The question coulda write with more precision, imo.”
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With this viewpoint, others spiralled: “Without more information it’s hard to choose the answer. We say time in a clockwise manner which would make A the closest if we are talking about the next midnight.
“However, it did not state which midnight this D it closest.”
But if we’re just taking this question in its simplest meaning, the answer very obviously is D – as many, many users got correct.
This is because midnight is at 12am, making D the nearest time with just three minutes.
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Users pointed this out: “Lmao how are y’all saying A that’s almost midday.”
Another did put: “Mathematically D is correct. Grammatically A is correct.”
Seems like we’re all getting a bit too involved in the question to be honest, it really is a simple scenario about time – and particularly, the difference between AM and PM.
Let’s not even get people started on that trigonometry and algebra.
Jess Battison