Viral Math Problem Homework

A man in England posted his child's math homework on Facebook, asking the internet for help, because he thought it seemed "impossible." It's caused a bit of a stir online since the posting, but it's not as complicated as it seems. Here's the answer and an explanation for how to arrive at it.

Produced by Chris Snyder

[adtc]

I thought the rounded rectangle on the right side had something to do with the question. I was waiting for a connection to be made. Little did I realise that's the box for you to write your answer in...

[calamumu]

Duh, it's way simpler than that, Shrek's law of maths means that all you have to do is tell the question to get out of your swamp. The question will then proceed to leave the area at 99.99% the speed of light, leaving its answer behind.

[midnightmarble]

Congrats to all the kids who feel the need to express their meager intelligence on this video!

[SubscribersWithoutAnyVid-ltvy]

Alright comment section we get it, you already knew how to solve this problem

[skywho]

HOW THE FRICK IS THE 10CM LINE LONGER THAN THE 12CM LINE

[Limeousoo]

made me solve it thinking it's challenging

[arsenalgonner]

Says elementary school in England dpnt they mean primary?

[preciousfalconi]

OH GOD THANK YOU FOR THOSE PEOPLE WHO ANALYZE THIS KIND OF SITUATION/PROBLEM

[JimRamirez]

At first I thought they were asking for the area, which would have been a much harder problem. It's probably good for parents to help their kids with homework (and get a refresher while they're at it).

[bingbong]

This actually pisses me off so much. If had this question on the act or sat, I would’ve had a mental break down and gave up

[speedbird]

Ok im sorry but i am british and i know tech insider is American but in the UK there is no such things as an elementary school there is 5 things. Nursery, primary school, high school, college and university. It just triggered me so much when it said an elementary school in England.

[Starwing]

I solved the first one with trig. I made the square into two triangles and got
12^2+(10-e)^2=c^2 (e is taking into account the tiny appendage box)
This equals c+e = 22 now take this and add it to your two known variables
22+12+10=44 cm. Kind of round about, but this is what I saw to do when I saw this problem.

[sandikoo]

The first question is so easy idk why people were confused by it. The only problem I have with the second one is that you have to assume that the pieces beside the 2cm line were 1 cm and that the diagram was to scale, which you shouldn't be doing especially since the first question was not to scale. Other than that it's easy to figure out the rest of the perimeter

[anastasiaklyuch]

He confused a perimeter with an area, which is actually impossible to find there, but can be no more than 154 cm (circle limit) and no less than 0 (a line).
More percicely, the first area can't be more than 120 cm and bottom one no more than 99 cm, due to all angles being straight.
So to a degree, even area can be found with certainty, the rest is guessing by image.

[holanae]

This is so easy... how did people even get confused?! They made the explanation so much more complicated than it needed to be. XD

[mosab]

Visually it can be tricky but when you put it all in an equation form it becomes pretty self evident.

[lukasegeling]

For some reason these remind me of dented cars. The surface area stays the same, but a previously convex part is now concave

[myrobotisgas]

It doesn’t indicate if the figures are drawn to scale or if the equivalent figure is a rectangle

[adamhunter]

Alright everybody, while you might have learnt this elsewhere, I can tell you from personal experience that in the UK, although we do this sort of question, it's never presented in that way at primary (elementary) level.

[xandra]

There was a "Study Pug" ad before this. I dont know what it is either