Months after a fifth grade Singaporean math problem left a lot of people scratching their heads, another similar problem involving 50 cents (the coin, not the rapper) has been bugging students, parents, and concerned internet users for days.
High school students in Victoria, Australia found themselves getting a headache over a math problem in a Further Mathematics written examination, which is a requirement for the students to get their Victorian Certificate of Education.
The mind-boggling exam asked the Victorian high school students to examine an illustration of two 12-sided 50 cent-coins placed carefully beside each other, and were given multiple choices to choose from.
The problem read:
“A 50 cent coin has 12 sides of equal length. Two 50 cent coins are balanced next to each other on a table so they meet along one edge.”
The students were then asked to find out what the angle was at the part right below where the edges of both coins met. They were given five choices to choose from: A.) 12, B.) 30, C.) 36, D.) 60, and E.), 72.
Days after the exams, the students were still wondering what the answer to the question was. Some took the problem to the social media in an attempt to figure out what the answer was — while others simply wanted to express their anger over what seemed to them a ridiculously difficult question.
That’s when people started blaming 50 Cent the rapper.
According to The Age, one student said:
“F*** you 50 cent, I didn’t like your music anyway.”
Another student wrote:
“The 50 cent coin question make no sense to me as it asked us to find the angle, but it gave us no other angles or lengths to enter in the formulas so there was simply no way about it.”
Meanwhile, some people claimed it only took them 10 seconds to answer the question, while others belittled the Victorian high school students for not being able to answer the problem that was seemingly to easy for them.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, the department responsible for the exams, did not comment on the issue.