the professor

[abcdefg]

OK......
The answer is 9....everyone shook hands with 9 people.....the reason why the professor got nine different answers was because each person shook everyone elses hand......lemme explain:

if everyone shook everyone elses hand and their own hand....each ends up shaking 10 hands.....everyones hand including their own. But since they dont shake their own hands, that excludes them from the list so.

to further clarify....A, B,C,D,E,F,G,H are the guests....P is the professor and W is the Wife of Professor. A shakes hands with B,C,D,E,F,G,H,P, and W. B shakes hands with C,D,E,F,G,H,P and W as well as A...u count A becuase hes already done it. C shakes hands with D,E,F,G,H,P and W AND A and B....so the reason the professor got 9 different answers was because each shook hands with 9 DIFFERENT people. The answer is 9.

[abcdefg]

ok if that doesnt make sense....try it this way:
lets take me and u and 8 others.....i shake hands with the 8 others and you (whoever u are) thats 9 people. Now u shake hands with the 8 others and me (whoever i am) thats 9 people. but the answer is different because our list of people isnt the same. we shook hands with the 8 other people, but i shook yours and u shook mine....which means your list of hands shaken excludes yourself, but mine includes you. Thats how there are 9 different answers. the Professors wife shook 9 hands.

[CrystyB]

Nice alternate answer, Jesse! But by your reasoning, the answer is 8 ("Assuming that no two people in the same couple shook hands") or actually not-determined .

[Werebear]

quote:

---

At the end of the evening, the Professor asked each other person at the party how many different people's hands he/she had shaken; he got nine different answers.

---

Normally, I'd think this would be a single number, not a list of whose hands they shook. After all, if every person listed whose hand they shook, wouldn't he be able to count his wife's handshakes without any reasoning, math, or logic? It is creatively thought out, admittedly, but doesn't really fit the criteria of "how many".

Werebear

p.s. - For those of you keeping track at home, this is thread count number Six!!! Heck, I may start one myself. You know, the wording does say the professor asked EACH other guest at the party, and his wife was at the party... so ergo he asked her. Maybe someone answered -1 handshakes....

[MacadamiamaN]

YOU GUYS! How could you not know the answer! it's so obvious!!!
Here it is:

How many handshakes did the professor's wife receive?
NONE!
As only guests and hosts shook hands, the professor's wife was the HOSTESS.

[Dragon Phoenix]

Welcome, but please do not start multiple threads for one puzzle. Thank you. Lockdown.

The main thread is here.

[This message has been edited by Sofis (edited 05-28-2002 10:50 AM).]