The ‘simple’ maths puzzle from The 1% Club that’s leaving adults baffled – so, can YOU work it out?
A seemingly simple primary school maths question has left hundreds of adults scratching their heads.
The game show question, which was featured on the ITV program The 1% Club, has caused widespread confusion after circulating online – and, while some have been able to work out the answer in seconds, others admitted to struggling.
The puzzle asked players to identify the largest number from a series of digits, fractions, and percentages.
Players had to choose the highest value from either A: one-third; B: 0.0330; C: 30 per cent of 10; D: three-tenths; or E: 3.01.
The tricky question could easily be solved by converting each option to decimal numbers, but the equation had many confused and ‘seeing threes’.
Some shared their guesses while others speculated they had been given a trick question.
‘Is it not C? 3.33333? Or have I had a long day?’ one asked, and another said: ‘None of them are the largest number’.
‘Bit confusing. There are two numbers, two fractions and one percentage. I’m going with the biggest number… E,’ a third predicted.
A seemingly simple primary school maths question which was featured on ITV’s The 1% Club has left hundreds of adults scratching their heads
However, most people agreed the true answer was E: 3.01.
One person explained the solution by showing each answer as a decimal number: ‘0.333, 0.0330, 3.0, 0.3 or 3.01 – That will be E then’.
‘E. Is the answer. 30% of 10 is 3.33% would be 3.33 recurring,’ another clarified.
‘It’s E. You C guys are dividing 10 by 3 instead of multiplying 10 by.3 to get 30% of 10,’ a third agreed.
Despite the clarification, some were still sceptical, sparking a heated argument.
‘People saying.33333 is larger than 3.01?! Hmmm…’ one person wrote.
This show should be called “Who can’t be trusted to do their own tax return/benefit application”,’ a second quipped.
‘Wow, the amount of people who don’t know 1/3 is less than 1 is staggering. Answer is E as it’s the only answer greater than the whole number of 3,’ a third complained.
‘One third of what? Three tenths of what? Everyone seems to be assuming one-third of one and three-tenths of one, but it doesn’t say that. Not enough information to properly answer the question without making assumptions,’ someone added.
‘A lot of people are messing up the answers for option A and C, and that’s okay! Some people have not done math in quite some time or have made a silly mistake,’ one chimed in.
Hosted by Lee Mack, 56, the ITV programme sees 100 hopefuls answer questions that were put to the public, with the percentage who got it right determining its difficulty in each round
Saturday night’s 1% question proved to be so difficult that some TV watchers were left completely stumped
This isn’t the first time The 1% Club question has caused a stir among viewers.
The quiz show, hosted by Lee Mack, sees 100 contestants battle it out to get to the final round and answer a question that only 1% of the country can answer.
In one episode, viewers were left baffled by a hidden sequence question worth a whopping £93,000.
Four contestants made it to the final question in the recent instalment and chose to play for a chance at bagging a share of the jackpot, but only two, Maisy and Jasmine, answered it correctly – taking home £46,500 each.
The question read: ‘Peter has recently found his old diary that he’d written in secret code, but he can’t remember how to decipher what he wrote.
‘Can you crack the code to find out what the underlined word is? WH89 I GR1W UP I WA92 21 B8 A 5L1RI72.’
Lee revealed the answer, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a florist’ and explained how Peter had replaced a letter with a number that started with that letter where possible.
Some took to social media to share their verdict on the tricky question, with one posting: ‘Nowhere near the 1% question this week, well done to the two who spotted it..’;
Some took to social media to share their verdict on the tricky question, with one posting: ‘Nowhere near the 1% question this week, well done to the two who spotted it’
‘I didn’t get the 1% question, but my 11-year-old did.’;
‘Was close to working it out, but not in the time!! Congratulations to the 2 ladies.’;
While others found the question easy, with one penning: ‘The 1% Club’ fans are buzzing—last night’s 1% question was a breeze! X users say even kids could nail it. Are the quizzes softening up, or are we just geniuses now?’
In the same episode, Viewers were left fuming after a ‘nonsensical and stupidly worded’ question wiped out a wave of players early on.
The 90% question read: ‘Which of these is the largest? A) Circle, B) Triangle, C) Rectangle, or D) Square.’ The correct answer was C, Rectangle, because it was the longest word.
However, despite it being the first and supposedly the easiest question of the game, 12 contestants answered incorrectly.
Afterwards, some fans took to social media to share their thoughts on the question, expressing how ‘outraged’ they were on X.
Source: dailymail