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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday April 16 2015, @01:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the it-seemed-like-the-logical-thing-to-do-at-the-time dept.

A couple of months ago, it was a color-changing dress that blew out the neural circuits of the Internet. Now Kenneth Chang reports in the NYT that a problem from a math olympiad test for math-savvy high school-age students in Singapore is making the rounds on the internet that has perplexed puzzle problem solvers as they grapple with the simple question: "So when is Cheryl's birthday?"

Albert and Bernard just met Cheryl. “When’s your birthday?” Albert asked Cheryl.
Cheryl thought a second and said, “I’m not going to tell you, but I’ll give you some clues.” She wrote down a list of 10 dates:
May 15 — May 16 — May 19
June 17 — June 18
July 14 — July 16
August 14 — August 15 — August 17
“My birthday is one of these,” she said.
Then Cheryl whispered in Albert’s ear the month — and only the month — of her birthday. To Bernard, she whispered the day, and only the day.
“Can you figure it out now?” she asked Albert.
Albert: I don’t know when your birthday is, but I know Bernard doesn’t know, either.
Bernard: I didn’t know originally, but now I do.
Albert: Well, now I know, too!
When is Cheryl’s birthday?

Logical puzzles like this are common in Singapore. The Singapore math curriculum, which has a strong focus on logic-based problem solving, has been so successful that it's been adopted around the world. According to Terrance F. Ross, US students have made strides in math proficiency in recent years, but they still lag behind many of their peers internationally, falling at the middle of the pack in global rankings. In the same PISA report the U.S. placed 35th out of 64 countries in math. "And even though the "Cheryl's Birthday" question may be atypical of the average Singaporean classroom, perhaps it's still worth asking: Are you smarter than a (Singaporean) 10th-grader?"

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @03:33AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @03:33AM (#171350)

    Did you know there are more people with genius IQs living in China than there are people of any kind living in the United States?

    Did you know the number of people in China would have to increase by 3000% or for the population of the United States to decrease by 96.6% for that statement to be true?

    Alternatively adjust the IQ requirement for genius to be only 108.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @03:52AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @03:52AM (#171364)

    It's a quote from The Social Network (2010) and the very next line is, "That can't possibly be true."

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @03:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @03:08PM (#171613)

    the number of people in China would have to increase by 3000%

    What sort of fucked statement is that?
    If the population decreases by a measly 100%, then there is no more population.
    Please, what number are you hoping I'd find after your extra 2900% of nothing?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @03:19PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 16 2015, @03:19PM (#171617)

      Moron! Learn to read betta!
      Dagnabit, and I even quoted the "increase" - and still failed to read it!

      Apologies for the knee-jerk, self-righteous, assholistic(-but-about-something-else) post-in-haste.