Media outlets around the world are reporting on these math problems that have "flummoxed" everyone. As these got so much attention, I wanted to share some of the headlines and give a small discussion about what I think is the real lesson of these problems.

Special thanks to emails that suggested these problems from Abhi (China problem) and Vinicius (dog show problem).

Actually the captain's age dates back to French researchers 40 years ago! Here's a video about that: https://youtu.be/uyS1cXrsgIg

My blog post for this video
https://wp.me/p6aMk-5ro

Sources and headlines around the world

Captain's age question
"If a ship had 26 sheep and 10 goats onboard, how old is the ship's captain?"

South China Morning Post
http://www.scmp.com/news/china..../society/article/213

The Portal (Chinese)
http://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1971117

RT
https://www.rt.com/news/417231....-china-math-problem-

BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-42857864

Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com..../news/worldviews/wp/

Newsweek
http://www.newsweek.com/can-yo....u-solve-it-bizarre-m

Official response (Chinese).
http://news.sina.com.cn/s/wh/2....018-01-27/doc-ifyqzc

Number of dogs question
"There are 49 dogs signed up to compete in the dog show. There are 36 more small dogs than large dogs signed up to compete. How many small dogs are signed up to compete?"

POPSUGAR
https://www.popsugar.com/moms/....Hard-Second-Grade-Ma

Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new....s/article-5337705/Mo

New Zealand Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11986714

Forbes contributor Kevin Knudson (of "My favorite theorem podcast" fame)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/k....evinknudson/2018/01/

My Favorite Theorem Podcast (just a link I recommend, nothing to do with these problems)
https://kpknudson.com/my-favorite-theorem/

LADbible
http://www.ladbible.com/commun....ity/viral-can-you-an

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