Tricky homework question of maths leaves many scratching heads

A tricky maths question of a seven-year-old child’s homework left many scratching their heads when it was shared by a mother on Facebook to ask for help to solve it.

After being baffled by a mathematics question meant for seven-year-old children as homework, a mother Teresa Hopper from UK’s Norfolk country shared it in the Facebook group Family Lockdown Tips and Ideas by writing, “I hate homework. Please help!”

In the image, she wrote, “Is the answer to a) & b) the same or am I missing something?!”

It read, “Karla says: ‘I have three hundreds counters, 17 tens counters and 16 ones counters.’

“a) Can she make two equal three-digit numbers? If so, draw the counters to show them.

“b) Can she make two equal three-digit numbers if she had to use all her counters? If so, draw the counters to show them.”

Although, some people thought the question was rather straightforward, however, many felt it extremely confusing and even one woman, who claimed to have a PhD in mathematics confessed that she was unsure about the answer.

She commented, “I have a PhD in maths, and I have no idea what this question is asking. Unless there’s a diagram to go with it, or more explanation somewhere else.”

A user said, “I’m 45 and I can’t work it out lol,” whereas, another user said, “I’m lost.”

Teresa and her child eventually submitted the answers as 172 for a, and 243 for b after working on the problem which the parent later confirmed that the teacher had marked these as correct, Mirror UK reported.