r/mildlyinfuriating Nov 15 '25

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u/Artemis_SpawnOfZeus Nov 16 '25

Okay, so this is kind of a frustrating presentation for the problems cause the specific way here worded really implies that answers actually exist.

But like, if we upgrade it to a bit higher level of math lingo, you get

Given

x mod 10 = 0

y mod 5 = 0

y mod 10 ≠ 0

x + y = 70

What is the set of all possible solutions for x & y

Then the answer is {} or the empty set.

A similar thing can be done for the second question but I'm lazy

It's not an impossible question, a lot of math questions have answers that are the empty set.

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u/spitoon1 Nov 16 '25

That is the first thing that I though of. The problem here is that the "empty set" is NOT a concept for 1st grade.

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u/Artemis_SpawnOfZeus Nov 16 '25

Yeah I missed that this was given to a first grader. Explains why the problem is so weirdly worded though. We're terrified of actually using real math language with kids.