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A Task With No Solution: How Much is Left When You Lose 'Some'?

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Half a thousand Reddit users were perplexed by a third grade math problem. Take the challenge yourself. 05.11.2017, Sputnik International

2017-11-05T14:23+0000

2022-08-06T11:57+0000

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A Task With No Solution: How Much is Left When You Lose 'Some'?

14:23 GMT 05.11.2017 (Updated: 11:57 GMT 06.08.2022)

CC0 / / Marbles

CC0 / /

Half a thousand Reddit users were perplexed by a third grade math problem. Take the challenge yourself.

A user of the American social news aggregation site posted a photo of a math problem for third graders.

The problem states that Janell has 15 marbles; and asks readers to calculate how much she will be left with if she loses "some."

This 3rd grade math problem... from funny

The users seemed to have been truly delighted with the task. Among the most common answers was < 15 (less than 15).

However someone suggested that the right variant will be "some" – "some" were lost and "some" were left.

Others joyfully came up with complicated mathematical formulas, suggesting that the girl could have lost "half a marble."