--- title: The Internet Can't Handle This Teacher's Trick Math Question description: A teacher's clever trick question on a math test about symphony music drove the internet to the brink — but she cleared it all up. canonical: https://time.com/4979608/beethoven-trick-question/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-12T15:29:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:47:57.774Z og:title: The Internet Can't Handle This Teacher's Trick Math Question og:description: Beethoven's 9th Symphony is back in the spotlight og:url: https://time.com/4979608/beethoven-trick-question/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2105d9d5aafed10/6988e1abcf40a80612c49c9e/beethoven-art.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3592 og:image:height: 2021 og:image:alt: Beethoven og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Can't Handle This Teacher's Trick Math Question twitter:description: Beethoven's 9th Symphony is back in the spotlight twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2105d9d5aafed10/6988e1abcf40a80612c49c9e/beethoven-art.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Is Questioning Everything Thanks to This Teacher's Trick Question > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 12, 2017 3:29 PM UTC  German composer Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) with the Rasowmowsky Quartet, drawn by the artist Borckmann. German composer Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) with the Rasowmowsky Quartet, drawn by the artist Borckmann. Rischgitz—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 12, 2017 3:29 PM UTC [Beethoven’s 9th Symphony,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%5F-mvutiDRvQ) while always a classic, is currently having a viral moment. The classic [orchestral arrangement](http://time.com/4152023/beethoven-birthday/) became an internet meme after a curious math test question began circulating online. “An orchestra of 120 players takes 40 minutes to play Beethoven’s 9th symphony,” the question goes. “How long would it take for 60 players to play the symphony?” At first glance, this seems to be a question of inverse proportions: half the players should mean double the time, right? But as internet denizens were quick to point out, that would be absolutely wrong. A symphony’s timing is fixed, more or less, adjusted only by the rate of play as dictated by the composer — not the number of participants. Luckily, the frustration at the question quickly cleared up when the original writer — a teacher from Nottingham in the U.K. — discovered her work being shared on Twitter, and had the receipts to prove it. As she explained, it was a trick question to keep students alert while making their way through the worksheet. > [](https://twitter.com/dmataconis/status/917496578285490178) > [](https://twitter.com/LongmoorClaire/status/918014499071897600) > [](https://twitter.com/LongmoorClaire/status/918048158856503296) Of course, there’s a separate issue with the question, as classical music lovers have noted: Beethoven’s 9th is not a 40-minute symphony. In fact, it clocks in at over 70 minutes. No matter how many players, it seems, the question fails its own test. > [](https://twitter.com/PKoppenburg/status/917787396862808065) > [](https://twitter.com/PKoppenburg/status/917788523759067136) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4979608/beethoven-trick-question/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4979608/beethoven-trick-question/"},"headline":"The Internet Is Questioning Everything Thanks to This Teacher's Trick Question","datePublished":"2017-10-12T15:29:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:57.774Z","description":"A teacher's clever trick question on a math test about symphony music drove the internet to the brink — but she cleared it all up.","url":"https://time.com/4979608/beethoven-trick-question/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Math"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2105d9d5aafed10/6988e1abcf40a80612c49c9e/beethoven-art.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2105d9d5aafed10/6988e1abcf40a80612c49c9e/beethoven-art.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Beethoven","caption":"Beethoven","creditText":"Rischgitz—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4979608/beethoven-trick-question/","name":"The Internet Is Questioning Everything Thanks to This Teacher's Trick Question"}}]}] ```