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US dad stumped by son's 5th grade math quiz, internet reacts to confusing homework
A dad asked Reddit for help to solve his son's standard 5th math quiz, and the social media users came up with a surprising solution.
A US dad took to Reddit after getting stumped by his fifth grader’s math homework, and it wasn’t just him. The question, involving bottles and basic arithmetic, left many scratching their heads.
“This particular question was in my son's math homework from the other day. They reviewed the answers in class today and apparently the answer was A,” the dad wrote on Reddit.
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He continued that he was curious to know how that was the solution to the problem and added that his son got an answer that was not listed in the worksheet. “I must be missing something in how it's worded but I can't for the life of me figure it out,” he said.
What does the quiz say?
“Kayla has 18 bottles of bubbles. She wants to give 2 bottles to each of her 6 friends. How many bottles will she have left over? Which expression solves the problem?” read the quiz with four options.
Take a look at the post here:
How did social media react?
While some announced that they, too, thought the answers were wrong, a few tried to solve the math quiz.
Agreeing with the dad, an individual posted, “Your answer seems to be correct, none of those options are correct.” Another added, “I feel terrible that these kids have to learn anything like this. How can the child be expected to learn when even a multiple choice question doesn't contain the correct answer.”
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A third joined, “Using bad logic, this is the only way I can get any of the answer choices (and it is A) - I’m not saying it’s correct, only wanted to explain their (wrong) logic: She’s splitting the 18 bottles into sets of 2, that’s 18 /2. Then, she’s splitting those sets of 2 among her 6 friends. That’s why you divide by 6 next. That leaves you with A. But as everyone here has said, you and your son are correct. The worksheet is wrong.”
A fourth wrote, “Really twisting my brain here to make sense of A being correct, but here goes: if you divide 18 bottles by 2 you get 9 bottles in two separate piles. Now give one bottle from each pile to all 6 friends. The result would be 3 bottles leftover in two separate piles, or 6 leftover bottles total. Gymnastics.”
What is the correct answer?
In a follow-up comment, the dad responded, “Thanks, everyone! It does seem the worksheet is indeed wrong. I'll reach out to the teacher and let them know. I appreciate the feedback! EDIT: I did talk with the teacher, and they went over it in class together. The teacher mentioned none of the answers were right (sic), and what my son came up with was correct.”
