A Math Problem From Singapore Goes Viral: When Is Cheryl’s Birthday?

A couple of months ago, it was . Though it may not have quite the mass appeal, this week it is a math problem that is making bushels of brains hurt.

It started with a posting on Facebook, by Kenneth Kong, a television host in Singapore.

From there, people around the world have been trying to figure out Cheryl’s birthday, or at least wondering why she couldn’t she just save everyone a lot of trouble and be more direct with Albert and Bernard.?

The wording of the problem is terrible, so here is a clearer version, which makes some of the assumptions more obvious but which does not change any of the underlying logic of the problem:

Originally, Mr. Kong said this was a problem inflicted on fifth-graders, leading to hand-wringing that Singapore children were way better at math than the everyone else in the world and worries that Singapore children were being mentally abused with convoluted logic at a young age.

It turned out the problem actually came from a math olympiad test for math-savvy high school-age students.

How would you fare in a room full of adolescent math competitors in Singapore??

(Once you think you have figured it out — or if you don’t know where to start —.)

post from sitemap
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