Dad baffled by child's homework so difficult math graduates don't understand

A dad has been left baffled by his child's homework with a question so challenging that even maths graduates have been struggling to solve it.

Looking for help - and answers - the father took to social media to ask users to explain it to him, admitting it is making him 'lose his mind'. The maths question he goes on to explain reads more like a riddle - can you solve it?

Taking to Reddit he wrote: "So yeah. My daughter said she needed help with her homework and this mystery number c**p is about to make me lose it."

The question reads: "Mr. Ruis gives his class clues about a 6-digit mystery number. The 3 is in a place that is 10 times greater than the place of the 0. The 1 is in a place that is 10 times less than the place of the 0. The 4 is in a place that is 10 times more than the place of the 3. The 9 is in a place that is 100 times less than the 1. The 2 is in a place that is 10 times more than the 9. What is Mr. Ruis' 6-digit mystery number?"

Sharing a picture of the worksheet, he received more than 250 upvotes and nearly 200 comments from people trying to solve the problem, reports the Mirror.

Trying to figure it out, one user said: "Oh I thought it was 921034. But now I realize that bigger numbers are on the left, lol."

In response, another user added: "I have a math degree and did the same thing." One more user responded: "I'm a CS major, apparently my brain is little-endian and so is yours."

Commenting on the task, one user added: "They gave her a zebra puzzle for math homework? That's messed up. This is just the math version of Einstein's riddle." Breaking down the answer, another user said: "I know there is a 3 and a 0 and that the 3 must be directly to the left of the 0 since its place is 10x greater than that of the 0 (30).

"Now I need to add a 1 and since its place is 10x less than that of the 0 it must go directly to the right of the 0. (301). Now I need to add the 4 directly to the left of the 3 since its place is 10x greater than that of the 3. (4301).

"Now I need to add the 9 which is "tricky" since its place is 100x less than that of the 1 so it needs to be 2 spots to the right of the 1. (4301_9). Now to fill in the blank with the 2, which fits in with the clue that the place of the 2 is 10x greater than that of the 9, or in other terms 1 spot directly to the left of the 9 (430129)."

Thanking them for their logic, one user commented: "My kids are in preschool. I’m 44 years old so the way I learned math is different. I’m saving this post to help me out with his homework years from now."

A final user said: "This sounds pretty logical."

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