Find Out The Dumb Reason Why the Internet Is Freaking Out Over an Algebra Textbook…

This Algebra textbook looks like your average corny textbook cover, until you look a little closer…

You’re probably asking yourself, “WHAT IS THIS SORCERY?!” Those kids are holding an Algebra textbook that has a picture of them holding the very same Algebra textbook on the cover. Is Christopher Nolan trading in his director hat for an Algebra cover-designing hat or what?!

Ha ha, no! But that would be fun, right? I’d be into math if all the questions were set up like Christopher Nolan movies (in that it doesn’t matter that the answer doesn’t make any sense, so long as I felt something while trying to solve the problem…

It turns out a lot of people on the internet got riled up about this cover. So much so, in fact, that there are full-on conspiracy theories about how it was created.

But like algebra, the correct answer is also the simplest answer (not really). X + Y = Photoshop, where X is the book cover and Y is the explanation for the book cover. According to Reddit user serhm, the photo is a stock photo of some multicultural college students who are holding various notebooks, that has been photoshopped for the Algebra book’s cover.

The publisher’s spokesperson, Lindsay Stanley, said of the incident, “If nothing else, perhaps we’ve helped to raise interest around the subject of algebra.” To which I reply: HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA! No. After this I just want to go re-watch Inception and continue to be grateful that I never have to open another Algebra book again…