2 days ago
People struggle to work out 'closest time to midnight' in 'confusing' riddle
This riddle might seem simple at first, but it's proved it's not as easy as you'd think. This kids' homework question has stumped adults as they try to work out the closest time to midnight
A kids' homework question has left adults seriously baffled as they try to work out the closest time to midnight out of four options. Although most people will have gone to school and done similar riddles, it can be hard to make your brain work in the same way it used to do.
Mortgage brokers Crawford Mulholland recently took to TikTok to ask people to work out the "closest time to midnight", and it's clear many found it confusing. The possible answers given were: A) 11.55am, B) 12.06am C) 11.50am and D) 12.03am. Sharing an image of the puzzle, which was apparently meant for children, one employee collected answers from people.
Many people confidently picked D, 12.03am, but others said they were confused because of the wording of the question. It's asking for the closest "to" midnight. One man said: "Why is this confusing? I thought it was going to be way too easy."
A huge debate ensued in the comments section, where there were a lot of varying answers. One person said: "Has to be B," while someone else wrote: "It's C." "It's B. Obvious," said another.
"11 .55am is closest TO midnight...," said one person. Another wrote: "It's A, the question is what is the closest TO midnight not FROM midnight." Another answered: "A. The others are 23 hours away from midnight time doesn't go backwards."
Explaining how they worked it one, one person on Reddit shared: "Just to be contrarian, I will say A. Unless you have a time machine. A is 12 hours 5 minutes from midnight. B is 23 hours 54 minutes from midnight. C is 12 hours 10 minutes from midnight. D is 23 hours 57 minutes from midnight."
However, others argued the wording of the question could be interpreted in different ways. One person said: "'Closest to' does not have to be interpreted as the arrow of time. You could interpret it that way, but you could also interpret as most of the people in this sub do: absolute difference."
According to Mind Your Decisions: "Answer choices C and A are 10 and 5 minutes before 12 noon, so they are about 12 hours away from midnight. On the other hand, answer choices D and B are 3 and 6 minutes after midnight. One could say they are just minutes away from midnight, or one might say they are nearly 24 hours away to the next midnight.
"But the question does not specify time to the next midnight. It only states which time is closest to midnight, so that could mean time before or after midnight.
Therefore answer choices D and B are more appropriate choices to be closer to midnight. Of these, answer choice D is only 3 minutes after midnight and that is closer than B which is 6 minutes. Therefore the correct answer is D. 12:03 a.m."
