A viral maths puzzle that has been stumping thousands online has been revealed as a hoax. The problem, reportedly given to Singaporean first-year pupils aged five to seven, was widely shared on social media and tech forums with claims that it was unsolvable.
However, a closer look shows the image appears doctored. The puzzle was lifted from a website run by Gordon Burgin, a retired American teacher in Norwich, but altered by rubbing out a '0' in the bottom left quadrant. Burgin expressed bemusement at the hoax, saying, 'If discussion and frustration was the intention I guess they succeeded.'
The original puzzle, which is solvable, involves a circle divided into four sectors, each containing a two-digit number equal to the sum of three numbers at the corners of its sector. Numbers 1 to 9 are used once each, with one number provided. The challenge is to find the remaining four numbers.
In addition, the article presents a historic Japanese puzzle from 1727, the Wakoku Chie-Kurabe, which asks to place numbers 1 to 9 in circles so that sums around each blue circle and along horizontal and vertical lines are equal.
