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Internet in knots over ‘Cheryl’s birthday’ logic problem

Posted at 2:27 PM, Apr 15, 2015
and last updated 2015-04-15 14:42:31-04

Cheryls Birthday Logic Problem Goes viral

(CNN) — Are you smarter than a really smart Singapore high school student?

See if you can figure out Cheryl’s birthday, the Singapore logic problem that’s got the Internet twisted into knots. Some are even saying it’s the math equivalent of the “What color is the dress” debate.

The puzzling problem went viral after Singapore television host Kenneth Kong posted it to Facebook.

Cherl’s birthday challenge was meant to test the better high-school students competing in the Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad held on April 8.

Here it is: Cheryl has a birthday, and she doesn’t want to share it right away. (Otherwise, we have no challenge to solve.) So she gives her friends Albert and Bernard a list of 10 possible birthday dates in May, June, July and August.

A brief conversation between Albert and Bernard — who we assume are not lying for the sake of this problem — gives the reader enough clues to eliminate nine of the 10 dates and discover Cheryl’s birthday.

That’s assuming you want to celebrate with Cheryl after she’s put you through all that trouble.

The New York Times, the Washington Post have posted their solutions to the problem, along with explanations.

Of course, the Internet has offered other solutions.