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“Cheryl’s Birthday” Math Problem Has the Internet in a Daze

Some people deemed it the most difficult math problem

Apr 16, 2015 07:53 GMT  ·  By
The problem that has bemused the Internet
   The problem that has bemused the Internet

A math problem is probably the last thing you would expect to go viral, but surprisingly, this one did. When a Singaporean TV presenter posted on Facebook what looked like a simple logic problem, he probably didn’t imagine that it would soon become a stressful issue for many people on the Internet and a subject of debate for the challengers who decided to give it a try.

It was reported that the problem in question was designed for 11-year-old children, but it seems that not even their parents could find the answer to it and soon enough the question on everyone’s lips was when exactly Cheryl’s birthday was.

As the Telegraph points out, the math problem offers some minimal clues which are supposed to help teenagers get the right answer, but not even self-proclaimed intellectuals were able to get to the bottom of it.

This problem sure stirred some confusion

The Internet became engaged in a serious debate on what the date of Cheryl’s birthday might be, and everyone was curious about the correct answer. Many felt ashamed for not being able to solve the problem, given that it was meant for teenagers.

But they should keep in mind that is was not just for any kind of teenagers, but for “Singaporean secondary 3 and secondary 4 SASMO (Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad) contestants,” and representatives of the renowned math competition from Asia took to Facebook to explain it.

It seems that parents who had been unable to get the right answer had expressed their dissatisfaction with the contest itself and their worry about their children having to deal with unsolvable problems.

So SASMO felt the pressure from the increasing number of angry parents and decided to reveal the suggested solution, also emphasizing that their competitions “target the top 40% of the student population.”

So those who couldn’t solve the now famous math problem should not feel bad about their math skills and just deal with the fact they are not a part of the above-mentioned category.

And if you really want to know when Cheryl’s birthday is, you can check out the resolution provided by SASMO on their official Facebook page, watch the detailed YouTube video released by BBC, or just read some of the answers circulating around the web, coming from people who were extremely creative, although probably not very good at math.

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