This High School Math Problem Has People Dumbfounded. How Would You Solve It?

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Most of us don’t remember much from our high school math class — obviously we remember the simple stuff like multiplication, division, etc., but when it comes to all that crazy geometry stuff — forget about it!

With that said, we don’t expect many of you to be able to whip out the answer to the math questions below. Not because you are not smart, but because the math problem is written sparsely and represents some advanced math techniques. Basically it’s just confusing AF.

The exam question features a box plot of temperature data, with students undertaking the test asked to ‘calculate the number of chirps made by crickets expected in a 15-second interval when the temperature is 19° Celsius.’

Australian news reports the New South Wales Education Standards Authority (NESA), which sets the Higher School Certificate (HSC)—the credential given to students who successfully complete senior high school level studies in that Australian state—insists the tricky math is part of the syllabus for students.

The problem above isn’t meant to be easy.

It may look small and obtuse, but it’s really a series of complex steps that fold logically into each other—something that advanced students might be more familiar with, while regular math students may have no exposure to statistical analysis.

This problem is called a ‘moonshot’ problem. Those teachers who give out ‘moonshot’ problems, don’t necessarily expect that the student will come up with the right answer, but the problems are so complex that it allows teachers to assess where a student is truly at in regards to problem solving.

So…do you know the correct answer?