A question on a teacher’s math quiz about an orchestra playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony became a meme over the weekend because it didn’t make sense.
That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works. pic.twitter.com/EdSSJInqEp
— Doug Mataconis (@dmataconis) October 9, 2017
The internet quickly mocked it.
The software development version of this is, you do not get a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant. https://t.co/C5vkwVPbJA
— Rob McMillin (@scareduck) October 10, 2017
This is priceless… https://t.co/9x07KtYKRe
— Rachel R (@rlrossi64) October 10, 2017
And the seemingly illogical question angered many people.
https://twitter.com/S0LUS/status/917774786092179456
https://twitter.com/RavenNG3D/status/917871665002016770
Screaming https://t.co/2Mm1H9oJKK
— Benedict Nelson (@ennobledinsect) October 10, 2017
But then the Nottingham, England-based teacher who wrote the question, Claire Longmoor, saw it being circulated online. She said she wrote it 10 years ago. She provided receipts.
I wrote this!! How did you get this??? I am a maths teacher in Nottingham UK. Wrote this 10 years ago. Here is the original whole worksheet pic.twitter.com/jYX55GSBKz
— Claire Longmoor #FBPE #remain (@LongmoorClaire) October 11, 2017
It turns out that the question was a trick “just to keep the kids on their toes.”
Trick question just to keep the kids on their [email protected]
— Claire Longmoor #FBPE #remain (@LongmoorClaire) October 11, 2017
Some people figured out that the question was a trick.
https://twitter.com/PaisleyStars/status/918166542637989888
https://twitter.com/PaisleyStars/status/918167481293987840
Whether or not you support throwing in trick questions to test students’ alertness, it’s amazing that the teacher unknowingly trolled the internet.
https://twitter.com/danicquinn/status/918131359671078912
Well played, Claire Longmoor. Well played.