Solving the Chinese boat captain riddle

You’ve probably seen it on your social media feeds – the unsolvable question posed to Chinese school children. People around the world have weighed in on the features of a hypothetical boat captain. It may only have been a test for those at Nanchong Shunqing Primary School, but the boat captain riddle has ignited the world’s imagination. So what actually is the solution? Read on for the story to this viral puzzle.

The question in the test was a simple one: “If a ship has 26 sheep and 10 goats on board, how old is the ship’s captain?” It’s easy to understand, but answering it is a different matter entirely. With so little information, some students suggested that its was impossible to be sure of the captain’s age, while many simply gave up and didn’t even try. But there were a lot of guesses and attempts at reasoning too. One child suggested: “The captain should be at least 18 years old because a minor is not allowed by law to operate a vessel.” Another suggested: “The captain is 36 years old. He is quite narcissistic, so the number of animals corresponds to his age.”

After this, the question hit social media, and everyone tried to answer. A lot of online commentators were unhappy with the whole thing. One angrily wrote that “The question has nothing to do with mathematics. It doesn’t test the pupil’s ability to understand maths.” Another agreed, writing: “This question makes no logical sense at all. Does the teacher even know the answer?” Commentators young and old from around the world attempted the question, with an equally mixed response.

Commentators were still trying to solve the unsolvable puzzle

So, what is the answer? There’s not a distinct response, and that’s the entire point. In response to the social media uproar, the local Department of Education released a statement last week, arguing that it was more about testing critical thinking instead of maths. They wrote: “Some surveys show that primary school students in our country lack a sense of critical awareness in regard to mathematics. The role of education is not to produce standardised spare parts… Each answer can reflect a different personality. A question that can have different answers is a good question.”

Despite the statement, commentators were still trying to solve the unsolvable puzzle. One particularly ingenious solution found a lower limit for the age. “The total weight of 26 sheep and 10 goats is 7,700 kilograms, based on the average weight of each animal. In China, if you’re driving a ship that has more than 5,000 kilograms of cargo you need to have possessed a boat licence for five years. The minimum age for getting a boat’s licence is 23, so he’s at least 28.”

There are two major things to take away from this episode. One is that sometimes you need to think outside of the box, and that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to problem solving. But it’s also revealed something incredible about the human race. Faced with an impossible challenge, people have lined up to attempt to succeed – it’s a testament to our ability to push the limits of our knowledge. The puzzle may be unsolvable, and deliberately so, but that doesn’t mean there’s no value in trying.