Question

Brain Teasers #1
At a party, everyone shook hands with everybody else. There were 66 handshakes. How many people were at the party?

Answer 1

11 people?

Answer 2

I don't know, that's why im asking lol:)

Answer 3

I was just guessing :)

Answer 4

what I remember is that you would have to make a web of some sort

Answer 5

But if there's 66 handshakes total, that would mean that each succeeding person has one less # of handshakes than the previous person, since s/he would have already shaken the preceding person's hand. This would mean that the # of handshakes would follow a descending quantitative pattern (e.g. 10 -> 9 -> 8 -> 7...).

If you have 12 people, than the 1st person will make 11 handshakes with everyone else. The next person will make 10 new handshakes, since s/he already shook hands with the first person. Following this pattern, you have that 11 + 10 + 9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 66.

So there are 12 people. Not 11. I messed up at first, but now I say 12 people.

Answer 6

something like this