Adults have been left scratching their heads at trying to work out the correct answer to a children's maths question that has been circulating on social media. While the question may sound easy enough to begin with, many end up confused by what the problem is actually asking them to do, sparking all sorts of responses from people.
In a recent post on Twitter, one user, Engineers_feed, shared the maths question earlier this month, which has since garnered almost one million views. The question, which first appeared online via snapshot of a children's maths test, asks: "What is the closest time to midnight?"
Children taking the test were given four multiple choice answers to choose from, including: "A. 11:55 am, B. 12:06 am, C. 11:50 am, or D. 12:03 am." While many were certain they knew the answer straight away, others urged them to re-think as the question isn't seemingly as straight forward as some would initially think.
In the comment section of the tweet, people were unable to work out if the question was asking them to find the time that was closest to midnight or from midnight. This lead to many believing the answer is option A, due to it being the latest time listed, making it the closest to the next midnight.
RelzLife put: "Time in and of itself can only go forward. People choose 12:03 because numerically it's the closest to 12:00. 11:55 is the correct answer." CVUSMO echoed: "12:03am means you're 23 hours and 57 minutes to midnight. Time only moves forward in this universe."
RamBala81 declared: "It is 11:55 am since the time only moves forward and the midnight will be 12 hrs 5 mins. For those thinking 12:03 am is the closest, the midnight would have already passed and the next midnight would be 23 hrs 57 mins away!"
Chandan_ganwani stated: "Time moves forward. Time to midnight 11:55 am. 12:06 and 12:03 are time past midnight." GoodWildandFree argued: "To midnight not after midnight."
RobLarrikin said: "The question's asking for the time that's closest to midnight, not the time that'll come closest to midnight next. There was no 'next.' Also, what about 'place'? As in, "Be at the park at midnight." Closest to midnight wins."
However, other frustrated commenters insisted the right answer is option D since the question was asking children which of the times was "closest" to midnight, regardless of whether it was before or after it.
Klaustracks wrote: "The answer is 12:03. Three minutes away from midnight. The question was which is the closest to 12. Not before or past." Bleepybloops explained: "-3 mins is closest to zero, so 12:03am. direction doesn't matter."
A88ullah added: "If "to" and "from" are the same so 12:03 am is the right answer otherwise, it's 11:55 am." Albyva suggested: "Think backwards is just as plausible at forwards.."
Meanwhile, others just saw the debate as an opportunity to crack some jokes. Nuckin_Futt said: "Depends on the time zone."
Phadychergui12 ·quipped: "You should've written 11:59 AM among the options and see what happens." Adventure4win typed: "The answer is fries."
What do you think the answer is? Let us know in the comments!
