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 (@rlrossi64) October 10, 2017
And the seemingly illogical question angered many people.
https://twitter.com/S0LUS/status/917774786092179456
https://twitter.com/RavenNG3D/status/917871665002016770
https://twitter.com/ennobledinsect/status/917792596692488196
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 (@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 toes@
— Claire Longmoor #FBPE (@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.
For all of you aghast at the orchestra question- it's a brilliant distractor 👌🏻 https://t.co/KuAE4pzDbT
— Dani Quinn (@danicquinn) October 11, 2017
Well played, Claire Longmoor. Well played.