Easy Math Problem Confuses Many, Goes Viral

Yet another simple math problem has gone viral after a number of people debated on what the real answer is.

There were some people on a train.
19 people get off the train at the first stop.
17 people get on the train.
Now there are 63 people on the train.
How many people were there on the train to begin with?

Here’s the answer:

There are 63 people on the train, meaning that one would subtract the 17 people who boarded the train.

Then you would have to account for the 19 people who got off, and one then has to add 19 and 46.

That gives 65, the answer, meaning there were 65 people on the train to start.

Or one could subtract 19 people by 17 people, which equals 2. Then add the other 63 to 2, which equals 65.

Louise Bloxham posted the problem to Twitter, confusing a number of people by stating the answer is 46. But that only solves the first portion of the problem.

As the Metro noted, “people said that the 19 was a red herring, which doesn’t make sense, or that the train was empty to begin with, which doesn’t make sense. It even says there are ’some people' on the train.”