A mum has been left baffled by a very ‘obscure’ question on her six-year-old’s maths homework.
The confused parent dubbed herself the ‘worst homework helper ever’ after she could not solve her child’s query as she couldn’t work out what the vague question was even asking.
The activity states Jake has nine lines and two dots before asking the student to ‘show one exchange he could make’.
Turning to the internet, the confused mum asked Reddit for help and online sleuths uncovered the true answer.
‘I’m not sure what this question is even asking.
‘He says the lines are worth 10 and the dots are worth one,’ she explained.
‘So this adds up to 92, but what is he supposed to do with that information?
‘Are they asking you to trade one line for 10 blocks or something?’
A confused mum dubbed herself the ‘worst homework helper ever’ after she could not solve her kid’s query as she couldn’t work out what the vague question was even asking
The answer was not obvious to many who were just as perplexed as the mum.
‘I feel like these questions are less about maths and more about getting your kid to talk about what they do in class,’ one user replied.
‘Good question. This looks just like the stuff my first-grader brings home too. Some of these questions are so obscure!’ another wrote.
But others were quick to crack the code, explaining the question is most likely asking to use a different amount of lines and dots to make 92.
‘Your son is right about the symbols.
‘They show he has 92 (nine tens sticks and two ones). I’m not sure what they mean by making an exchange though, and I am an elementary school teacher (4th grade),’ someone answered.
‘I would guess that they mean to show 92 by having eight lines of ten and 12 ones or something like that.’
‘My guess is yes, they are looking for you to draw an extra ten dots and one less line. So it would be 8 lines and 12 dots,’ another agreed.
‘When I was in school we had little plastic squares and lines for learning units. They probably represent the same thing, a third added.
‘I thought so. However, unless there is something in the problem demonstrating that a line is a tens rod, it’s just not very intuitive to teach or learn,’ another pointed out.
It comes after a father was so stumped by a challenging maths problem in his son’s homework that he had to turn to the internet for answers.
Writing on Reddit, the parent – believed to be from the US – revealed that while his son is usually ‘gifted’ at maths, they were both baffled by an equation that he felt was too ‘advanced’ for a nine-year-old.
Social media users were also left scratching their heads, with some saying the homework question ‘makes zero sense’.
The original post read: ‘My nine-year-old was given this math problem. I can’t even solve it. My son is quite gifted with numbers but I thought this problem was pretty advanced for a nine-year-old, right?
‘I tried to solve it (I’m no math geek) but I’m having some trouble. Any thoughts?’
The problem states: ‘In a number pyramid, each number in the middle and top rows is the sum of the two numbers below it. Below is an example.’
The question then presents another number pyramid with three missing values – and asks the students to work out what numbers belong in the missing spaces.
People rushed to the comments and attempted to solve the problem – but even adults were defeated by the question.
Writing on Reddit, the parent – believed to be fro the US – revealed that while his son is usually ‘gifted’ at maths, they were both baffled by an equation that he felt was too ‘advanced’ for a nine-year-old
One person wrote: ‘If I were a 9 year old, I’d use trial-and-error which is almost certainly the wrong way of solving this.
‘To be fair as a 40+ Dad I’d still use trial-and-error – and it wouldn’t matter what method I’d use as long as I got to the right answer…’
Another said: ‘This is inappropriate for a 9 year old. It took me more than a minute to figure it out.’
Someone else said: ‘Really interesting problem! Exposing your child to stuff like this at a young age is a great way to improve their Inuit on and problem solving skills.
‘Good on you as a parent and I have to admit it took me longer than I had hoped to solve it but we got there at the end.’
A fourth said: ‘That is not a question for a 9 year old. We did stuff like that between 8 and 10th grade. It is doable, but I don’t think this should be asked of a 9 year old.’
Many tried to solve the problem themselves and they shared how they came to their answers, however not everyone got it right.
One person said: ‘Always study the possible answers in a multiple choice. This one gives itself away. All the other choices are > 40 and therefore not compatible with the ’40’ at the top of the pyramid.’
Another said: ‘Am I the only one who went ‘It can’t be C D or E, because it can’t be greater than 40′? I realise that doesn’t solve it.’
Someone else said: ‘if you call x the star, y the heart and z, the other blank space should be 7+x. also, y=x+9. therefore 40=(7+x)+(9+x). you have two linear equations and two variables, now it is easy to solve them.’
Sharing the correct answer, one more user said: ‘Wow, every single post is way overcomplicating this, even the highest vote getters.
‘We don’t care what star equals or what heart equals. We just need their sum. The first entry in the 2nd row is clearly 7 + star. Adding the 2 second row cells, 7 + star + heart = 40. Subtract 7 from both sides, and you have star + heart = 33.’
