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Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, while always a classic, is currently having a viral moment.
The classic orchestral arrangement became an internet meme after a curious math test question began circulating online. “An orchestra of 120 players takes 40 minutes to play Beethoven’s 9th symphony,” the question goes. “How long would it take for 60 players to play the symphony?”
At first glance, this seems to be a question of inverse proportions: half the players should mean double the time, right? But as internet denizens were quick to point out, that would be absolutely wrong. A symphony’s timing is fixed, more or less, adjusted only by the rate of play as dictated by the composer — not the number of participants.
Luckily, the frustration at the question quickly cleared up when the original writer — a teacher from Nottingham in the U.K. — discovered her work being shared on Twitter, and had the receipts to prove it. As she explained, it was a trick question to keep students alert while making their way through the worksheet.
That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works. pic.twitter.com/EdSSJInqEp
I wrote this!! How did you get this??? I am a maths teacher in Nottingham UK. Wrote this 10 years ago. Here is the original whole worksheet pic.twitter.com/jYX55GSBKz
The other questions seem reasonable, so what was your intent with question 5? :P
