Family Size Poser

JS357

Posers and Puzzles

12 Feb 16

JS357

Joined: 29 Dec 08
Moves: 6788

12 Feb 16

A couple has 4 daughters. Each daughter has one brother. How many people are in this family?

This is either very hard or very easy.

C J Horse

A stable personality

Near my hay.

Joined: 27 Apr 06
Moves: 65863

12 Feb 16

7. Couple + 4 daughters + 1 son. Unless I'm missing something obvious.

JS357

Joined: 29 Dec 08
Moves: 6788

12 Feb 16

Originally posted by C J Horse
7. Couple + 4 daughters + 1 son. Unless I'm missing something obvious.

You aren't missing anything. There is a out there where someone insists the answer is 10.

AThousandYoung

1st Dan TKD Kukkiwon

tinyurl.com/2te6yzdu

Joined: 23 Aug 04
Moves: 26754

15 Feb 16

As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits:
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were there going to St. Ives?

Diapason

Joined: 21 Sep 05
Moves: 75006

16 Feb 16

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were there going to St. Ives?

I find the canonical answer to this to be unsatisfying on a couple of levels.
First of all the riddle appears to ask how many "Kits, cats, sacks and wives" are going - which should not therefore include either the bigamist or the narrator of the story.

The second problem is that I would guess that a large group of sack-carrying wives would almost certainly walk more slowly than me, so it would be equally possible for me to be catching them up or walking in the opposite direction.

Kewpie

Felis Australis

Australia

Joined: 20 Jan 09
Moves: 390162

19 Feb 16

There was only one going to St Ives. All the others were coming from St Ives.

C J Horse

A stable personality

Near my hay.

Joined: 27 Apr 06
Moves: 65863

20 Feb 16

Or they were all going to St Ives and you were overtaking them.

mwmiller

RHP Member No.16

Joined: 25 Feb 01
Moves: 104449

21 Feb 16

All we can say is that there is one person going to St. Ives.
There is not enough information to say that anyone else is going anywhere
They could be going there but nothing is said about it.

wolfgang59

Quiz Master

RHP Arms

Joined: 09 Jun 07
Moves: 48794

23 Feb 16

Originally posted by mwmiller
All we can say is that there is one person going to St. Ives.
There is not enough information to say that anyone else is going anywhere
They could be going there but nothing is said about it.

St Ives is nice.
Cant understand so many leaving.

twhitehead

Cape Town

Joined: 14 Apr 05
Moves: 52945

23 Feb 16

Originally posted by wolfgang59
St Ives is nice.
Cant understand so many leaving.

Well it wasn't so nice yesterday when it was overrun with cats and wives.