A MATHS problem meant for an eight-year-old child has stumped the internet, with adults struggling to answer it.
The parent posted the question as part of Year 3 homework and asked for help.
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“Jared found these baby birds and needs to care for them,” the problem said, alongside a grainy black and white cartoon of birds in a nest.
“Each bird eats about four worms a day. In order to feed them all each day, about how many worms will Jared need to find?”
The reader is then presented four possible answers: 6, 10, 4, 4 and 20.
Reddit users were left scratching their head with one joking, “I’d circle ‘OJ’ for ‘Only Jared knows at this point.”.
The picture seemed to show only three birds but the question seems to depend on people thinking outside the box, ignoring the cartoon and instead thinking in multiples of four.
And it was eventually a mum with a child in Year 2 that “dropped some knowledge”.
“We know Jared has to find worms in multiples of four so since 20 is the only answer in a multiple of four we can also deduce that Jared found five baby birds,” the user wrote. “My second grader is smart.”
While other users applauded each others for coming up with the right answer, some still thought it was a trick.
“Am I the only one that thought it was a trick question since they don’t specify for how many days?” One user commented.
This article was originally published on News.com.au and has been republished here with permission.