You know that feeling when you realize kids are way smarter than you? Here's a math problem that'll make you feel like that.
According to the New York Times, 13-year-old Luke Robitaille won the Raytheon Mathcounts National Competition with the answer to the following word problem:
In a barn, 100 chicks sit peacefully in a circle. Suddenly, each chick randomly pecks the chick immediately to its left or right. What is the expected number of unpecked chicks?
Competitors only have a pencil and paper, and are given 45 seconds to buzz in with their answer. Luke apparently buzzed in with his answer to the question in less than a second. Can you figure it out?
Got it yet? We'll give you some more time.
Better figure it out soon. We're going to give you the answer.
Give up?
The answer is 25 chicks. Don't ask us how Luke figured that out in less than a second. It apparently has something to do with probability. We're going to go back to searching for funny math class GIFs.