Math Puzzle

[Kay H Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Kay H]

Withdrew my answer because I was embarrassed at the answer I gave.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Who has the right answer? I posted mine, must have been at the same time wacky posted hers, but I don't know if it's right

Opps my mistake, I thought it was posted on the first page. Got dcale confused with Dawg

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

1582.

Ooops 10,976

[dawg Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dawg]

I dont want to give it away, but Arlene22 posted the correct answer on Post #6.

Dale

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Yep, not good at math while watching a basketball game (forgot to add in the girls).

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

My second go I got 10990 without bus driver.
Each 7 girls have 2 legs = total of 14
343 large cats = total of 1372 legs (7 girls x 7 backpacks x 7 large cats)
2401 small cats = total of 9604 legs (7 girls x 7 backpacks x 7 large cats x 7 small cats)

Boy, was that confusing!

[arlene22 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close arlene22]

I am a visual person, so I had to draw a picture. Here's how I worked through it:

Each backpack has 7 Big and 49 small cats = 56 cats
each girl has 7 backpacks, so 7 x 56 = 392 cats
There are 7 girls, so 7x392 = 2744 cats
each cat has 4 legs, so 4 x 2744 = 10,976
plus 14 legs for the girls = 10,990

Don't know where they kept the litter boxes...

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I emailed this to my son, I got his answer back right away.

7 girls. 7 bags each

7 x 7 = 49 back packs.
7 x 49 = 343 Big Cats.
343 x 7 = 2401 Little Cats.
2401 + 343 = 2744 Cats

2744 cats, 4 legs for Cats.

2744 x 4 = 10976 cat legs.

7 girls, 2 legs each.

7 x 2 = 14 legs.

10976 + 14 = 10990 legs.

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

Clever boy!

I emailed this to my son, I got his answer back right away.

7 girls. 7 bags each

7 x 7 = 49 back packs.
7 x 49 = 343 Big Cats.
343 x 7 = 2401 Little Cats.
2401 + 343 = 2744 Cats

2744 cats, 4 legs for Cats.

2744 x 4 = 10976 cat legs.

7 girls, 2 legs each.

7 x 2 = 14 legs.

10976 + 14 = 10990 legs.

[Guest Close monaco]

10990 + 2 if there is a bus driver

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I emailed this to a few friends and family. 1 person other than my son got it right because they looked it up in Yahoo somehow. But here is one response that makes sense and could be right.

The original statement says 'There are 7 girls ON a bus...... then the question at the end asks how many legs are there IN the bus? I say the answer is still zero. To me it's the same principal as the riddle "As I Was Going to St. Ives". But I guess the answer could be 14. There were only 7 girls ON the bus. It doesn't actually say where the backpacks were - just that each girl had 7 backpacks. So the answer to the question could be that there were 14 legs IN the bus. It really depends on how much of a stickler each person wants to be with the words ON and IN. This can be a very DEEP question! LOL It will be interesting to hear other people's views.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

If you look at this as riddle, then it does not tell you how many chairs are in the bus. And how many legs each chair has.

So it could be 0 legs, 14 legs, 13 legs, 10990 legs, 30000 legs, and if there are spider in the bus, each has 8 legs, there will be all the legs.



Jya-Ning

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

If you look at this as riddle, then it does not tell you how many chairs are in the bus. And how many legs each chair has.

So it could be 0 legs, 14 legs, 13 legs, 10990 legs, 30000 legs, and if there are spider in the bus, each has 8 legs, there will be all the legs.



Jya-Ning

yep the legs on the bus should count.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

I emailed this to a few friends and family. 1 person other than my son got it right because they looked it up in Yahoo somehow. But here is one response that makes sense and could be right.

The original statement says 'There are 7 girls ON a bus...... then the question at the end asks how many legs are there IN the bus? I say the answer is still zero. To me it's the same principal as the riddle "As I Was Going to St. Ives". But I guess the answer could be 14. There were only 7 girls ON the bus. It doesn't actually say where the backpacks were - just that each girl had 7 backpacks. So the answer to the question could be that there were 14 legs IN the bus. It really depends on how much of a stickler each person wants to be with the words ON and IN. This can be a very DEEP question! LOL It will be interesting to hear other people's views.

Right, all of us who said 14 were going by the "As I Was Going to St. Ives" principal--which is that a question like this is ALWAYS a trick question, not a mathematical one.

But Jya-Ning has a good point--there were legs on the bus seats, too.