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[nsd]

59. I don't believe you.

Others have politely and gingerly suggested more or less the same thing ("please post an image&quot , but I'm going to be impolite and blunt.

This post sounds made up.

The red flags:

1. Why is fuel measured in kilometers?

2. Americans don't measure distance in kilometers anyway.

3. Syria and Turkey have a long border. Where is this hypothetical plane taking off?

4. Mosul is in Iraq. I consider myself relatively well informed for an American, but I couldn't locate Mosul any better than that. There is no way American 9th graders could tell you where Mosul is. In fact, I suspect most of them would guess that Mosul is the name of a breakfast food, high in fiber but not tasty, that people in "Europe" eat.

5. I have never heard of cities called Rajah and Sinjar. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that, assuming these cities even exist, only a small fraction of 1% of American teenagers have heard of them.

If I am wrong, I apologize. But this just sounds like bullshit.

ETA: The problem is akin to the traveling salesman problem, which is a famously difficult and deep math problem. If 9th graders are really being asked questions like this, I have to say that I am very, very impressed with the state of American math education.