The internet is buzzing with a puzzle that asks people to figure out the birth year of James’s fourth child. Chris Foster shared the puzzle on the social media site Threads, and now people are trying to figure it out by coming up with creative ideas and making logical assumptions.
At its core, the puzzle looks much easier than it really is. In 2012, 2014, and 2018, James had three children. Based on this pattern, you have to guess the year that his fourth child will be born. In spite of this, puzzle fans quickly learnt that the answer is not simple.
The puzzle does a great job of getting people to think critically, look at the sequence in more depth, and notice the gaps between the years. Does the order of the birth years make sense, or is the puzzle meant to trick you?
There are a lot of ideas and reactions on the internet, and thousands of people have weighed in on the answer. Some suggested a simple pattern of numbers, while others offered more complicated mathematical connections. But there were quickly counterarguments and other explanations for each idea.
Some users even said they thought the puzzle was a clever trick meant to make people think twice instead of showing a secret pattern. One user said, “I don’t think there’s a fourth child at all—this puzzle is a trick!” This started a lively discussion about what the problem really was.
What makes this puzzle so interesting is that it can keep people of all levels of logic interested. Some people see it as a simple pattern-recognition task, while others see it as a more difficult problem that needs creative solutions.
Are you up to the task and can you find the answer? What year will James’s fourth child be born? Is it 2022, 2020, or something else? Or is the biggest surprise that there isn’t a fourth child at all? The answer comes in your ability to think outside the box and use more than just basic maths.
