新加坡小學(xué)生數(shù)學(xué)題難倒全球網(wǎng)友

A Math Problem From Singapore Goes Viral: When Is Cheryl’s Birthday?

新加坡小學(xué)生數(shù)學(xué)題難倒全球網(wǎng)友

A couple of months ago, it was a color-changing dress that blew out the neural circuits of the Internet. Though it may not have quite the mass appeal, this week it is a math problem that is making bushels of brains hurt.

幾個(gè)月前，一條顏色有爭(zhēng)議的裙子引爆了網(wǎng)民的神經(jīng)回路。本周則是一個(gè)數(shù)學(xué)問題損害了大量腦細(xì)胞，雖然它對(duì)大眾的吸引力可能沒那么強(qiáng)烈。

It started with a posting on Facebook, by Kenneth Kong, a television host in Singapore.

起因是新加坡電視主播江堅(jiān)文(Kenneth Kong)發(fā)在Facebook上的一個(gè)帖子。

From there, people around the world have been trying to figure out Cheryl’s birthday, or at least wondering why she couldn’t just save everyone a lot of trouble and be more direct with Albert and Bernard.

帖子在世界各地瘋傳，大家試圖弄清謝麗爾(Cheryl)的生日是哪天，至少想知道她為什么不直接把答案告訴阿爾伯特(Albert)和伯納德(Bernard)，幫大家省下許多麻煩。

The wording of the problem is terrible, so here is a clearer version, which makes some of the assumptions more obvious but which does not change any of the underlying logic of the problem:

原帖的措辭不太清楚，所以下面更清晰地描述一下問題，讓一些假設(shè)變得更加明顯，但是對(duì)相關(guān)的基本邏輯沒有做任何改變：

Albert and Bernard just met Cheryl. “When’s your birthday?” Albert asked Cheryl.

阿爾伯特和伯納德剛剛結(jié)識(shí)謝麗爾。“你的生日是什么時(shí)候呢?”阿爾伯特問謝麗爾。

Cheryl thought a second and said, “I’m not going to tell you, but I’ll give you some clues.” She wrote down a list of 10 dates:

謝麗爾想了一下之后說，“我不會(huì)告訴你們的，但我會(huì)提供一些線索給你們猜一猜，”她寫下一張清單，上面有10個(gè)日期：

May 15 — May 16 — May 19

5月15日-5月16日-5月19日

June 17 — June 18

6月17日-6月18日

July 14 — July 16

7月14日-7月16日

August 14 — August 15 — August 17

8月14日-8月15日-8月17日

“My birthday is one of these,” she said.

“我的生日就是其中一天，”她說。

Then Cheryl whispered in Albert’s ear the month — and only the month — of her birthday. To Bernard, she whispered the day, and only the day.

然后謝麗爾湊到阿爾伯特的耳邊，低聲告知了自己生日的月份——但只有月份。之后又小聲告訴了伯納德自己生日是哪一天，但沒有講月份。

“Can you figure it out now?” she asked Albert.

“你們現(xiàn)在能猜出來(lái)了嗎?”她問阿爾伯特。

Albert: I don’t know when your birthday is, but I know Bernard doesn’t know, either.

阿爾伯特：我不知道你的生日是幾月幾日，但我知道伯納德也不知道。

Bernard: I didn’t know originally, but now I do.

伯納德：本來(lái)我不知道，但是現(xiàn)在我知道了。

Albert: Well, now I know, too!

阿爾伯特：嗯，現(xiàn)在我也知道了!

When is Cheryl’s birthday?

那謝麗爾的生日是幾月幾日呢?

Originally, Mr. Kong said this was a problem inflicted on fifth-graders, leading to hand-wringing that Singapore children were way better at math than the everyone else in the world and worries that Singapore children were being mentally abused with convoluted logic at a young age.

江堅(jiān)文在原帖里說，這是個(gè)扔給五年級(jí)學(xué)生的問題，因此一些人展開論戰(zhàn)，覺得新加坡孩子在數(shù)學(xué)上遠(yuǎn)超世界上的其他人，并感到擔(dān)心，新加坡兒童在童年階段需要解答如此令人費(fèi)解的邏輯題目，這是一種精神虐待。

It turned out the problem actually came from a math olympiad test for math-savvy high school-age students.

實(shí)際上，這個(gè)問題出自一個(gè)數(shù)學(xué)奧林匹克競(jìng)賽測(cè)試，針對(duì)的是對(duì)數(shù)學(xué)悟性高的高中生。

How would you fare in a room full of adolescent math competitors in Singapore?

如果你在新加坡，要和滿屋子的青春期孩子開展數(shù)學(xué)競(jìng)賽，你的表現(xiàn)會(huì)如何?