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Brain teaser!!! handshakes!!

Others 594 views 4 replies

At a party, everyone shook hands with everybody else.

There were 66 handshakes.

How many people were at the party?

Replies (4)

Number of People is 12......... every person will handshake with 11 people ...... 12x11 / 2 = 66 ;) m i right?

Answer is 12.....

  n

     C              =        66

          2

N = 12

ITS 12 AS PROVED BELOW

ABCDEFGHIJKL                      
                       
  AB AC AD AE AF AG AH AI AJ AK AL
  BC BD BE BF BG BH BI BJ BK BL  
  CD CE CF CG CH CI CJ CK CL    
  DE DF DG DH DI DJ DK DL      
  EF EG EH EI EJ EK EL        
  FG FH FI FJ FK FL          
  GH GI GJ GK GL            
  HI HJ HK HL              
  IJ IK IL                
  JK JL                  
  KL                    
                       

 

With two people (A and B), there is one handshake
   (A with B).

With three people (A, B, and C), there are three handshakes
  (A with B and C;   B with C).

With four people (A, B, C, and D), there are six handshakes
  (A with B, C, and D;   B with C and D;   C with D).

In general, with n+1 people, the number of handshakes is the sum of the first n consecutive numbers: 1+2+3+ ... + n.

Since this sum is n(n+1)/2, we need to solve the equation n(n+1)/2 = 66.

This is the quadratic equation n2+ n -132 = 0. Solving for n, we obtain 11 as the answer and deduce that there were 12 people at the party.


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