Photo: SIphotography (Getty)
Sometimes a question or a word problem makes its way on to the internet and throws the internet for a loop — take for example the Kindergarten homework question that confused parents everywhere. But recently one math question shared by Twitter user Doug Mataconis drove the internet insane.
Check out the question below thanks to Twitter.
That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works. pic.twitter.com/EdSSJInqEp
— Doug Mataconis (@dmataconis) October 9, 2017
The question reads:
“An orchestra of 120 players takes 40 minutes to play Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. How long would it take 60 players to play the symphony? Let P be the number of players and T be the time playing.”
Wait, what?
And this is how the internet responded to all of this:
Two options, it is a logic trap question or the question writer is an imbecile.
— D Lindberg (@dlindber) October 9, 2017
i’m so angry right now
this has ruined my entire fucking day https://t.co/D518ij4Pz1
— (@S0LUS) October 10, 2017
That’s like saying “It takes 9 months for a woman to have a baby, how long would it take for 2 women to have a baby?”
— Mark Ford (@fordie) October 10, 2017
Simple: The masses love mathematics/classical music mashups.
— Greg Lalas (@Gaetjens) October 10, 2017
If one of the new players is a guitarist, it will definitely speed up.
— Mike Barry (@MickeyBPowerPop) October 9, 2017
Absolutely. Anyone trying to get through the Beethoven 9 in 40 minutes would have to butcher it criminally.
— Malcolm Grimston (@MalcolmGrimston) October 10, 2017
either this is some sort of massive music-nerd troll job or i REBUKE this aggressively https://t.co/HzmmoElG4c
— HexenLeah (@suesswassersee) October 10, 2017
But not to worry, because Claire Longmoor, a math teacher from Nottingham, England, claims that she wrote the question as part of a worksheet ten years ago. And the question is missing context.
I wrote this!! How did you get this??? I am a maths teacher in Nottingham UK. Wrote this 10 years ago. Here is the original whole worksheet pic.twitter.com/jYX55GSBKz
— Claire Longmoor (@LongmoorClaire) October 11, 2017
So it’s obviously a trick question. The song will take the same amount of time. Damn you, Claire for hurting our brain. And now it’s time to shut your brain off again.
h/t Mashable
