# Brain teaser. Could be off topic!



## pford86 (Aug 28, 2007)

Hi all,
I received an email this morning which had the following brain teaser.
Im not at all good at maths but thought perhaps it could be worked out easy with excel or something?

...........................................................................................

There is a bus with 7 girls inside, Each girl has 7 bags, Inside each bag, there are 7 Big cats, Each Big cat has 7 small cats, All cats have 4 Legs each!

Question: How many Legs are there inside the bus?


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## NateO (Aug 28, 2007)

Hello and welcome to our forums.  

We tend to welcome light, off-topic discussion and take this sort of thing up in the Lounge, so I have moved this topic here.

While browsing our Forums from the main page you should be able to see a brief description of what belongs where. And if you have questions, feel free to ask someone in our Moderator/Admin crew.


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## tafigueroa (Aug 28, 2007)

2,758 from the Big Cats, Small Cats and Girls.


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## TrippyTom (Aug 28, 2007)

Not necessarily!

It doesn't say if all girls have 2 legs each.

[...edit follows...]
and even if they did, the total occupancy FAR exceeds the maximum capacity by law, so I would hope a police officer would stop that bus before it caused a horrendous accident and kitty parts were strewn all over a highway!

By the way, I came up with a different number.  Perhaps (and most likely) there's an error, but here's my thinking:

Assuming all girls have 2 legs each:
1) 7girls x 2legs = 14 legs (girls)

2a) How many big cats? (7girls x 7bags x 7big cats) =  343 BC
2b) 343BC x 4legs = 1372 (big cats legs)

3a) How many small cats? (343BC x 7small cats) = 2401 SC
3b) 2401 SC x 4legs = 9604 (small cats legs)

... so the total (at least with my "fuzzy" math) is: 
14 + 1372 + 9604 = 10990 legs


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## Andrew Fergus (Aug 28, 2007)

Big cats = 7^3 = 343 big cats
Small cats = 7^4 = 2401 small cats

Assuming the bags are on the bus there are 2744 cats and 7 girls on the bus which gives 10990 legs - assuming each girl has 2 legs.

To hold 2744 cats in a bus is probably a big ask and how do the girls carry these 7 bags that contain 56 cats each?  Either these are toy cats or the girls either have muscular physiques or personal assistants.

But more to the point, is there a driver?  What is the point being on a bus if it isn't going anywhere?

So the answer could be a number of possibilites between 0 (all 7 girls are legless in wheelchairs and their bags are not on the bus) and 10992 (all legs and bags are accounted for plus a driver!) 

Cheers
Andrew


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## TrippyTom (Aug 28, 2007)

doh!  I knew I forgot something.  THE DRIVER!


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## tafigueroa (Aug 28, 2007)

It is a Auto Pilot bus with no driver, but there is a lot of fur so they may need sweepers to keep the bus clean which will give more legs yet.


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## Lewiy (Aug 29, 2007)

Ok, so we have established the number of girls on the bus, but do we know how many boys there are, or women, or men?  We’ve accounted for the bus driver, but how do we know that this is not one of the girls?  Do legs on the seats count? Do any of them use zimmer frames and if they did, would the legs on them count?


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## Domski (Aug 29, 2007)

I hate cats, can we drive the bus into a lake?

Dom


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## NumbersMax (Aug 29, 2007)

What about the legs on the seats?  Would probably need for 2,752 bodies at least 450 seats @ 4 legs apiece!

Add another 1800 legs!


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## Scott Huish (Sep 1, 2007)

Based on the question, the answer could be 14.

The question never said the sacks with the cats were actually inside the bus. The only thing that it said was inside the bus were the girls.


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## Tank997 (Sep 2, 2007)

I say 240 legs assuming the bus has a driver with two legs and each of the 7 girls has 2 legs.
driver = 2
girls =7x2=14
big cats = 7x4=28
small cats 7x7x4=196


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## Scott Huish (Sep 2, 2007)

I still think the trick to this is as I posted above. Most brain teasers are answered by what the question is literally asking, but is asked in such a way as to sidetrack you with assumptions. I think this is a clever variation of the St. Ive's riddle. But if we were to assume the bags and cats were with the girls, there's a lot more than 7 big cats.

Each girl has 7 bags

So there would be a total of 49 bags.
Each of those bags has 7 cats.
That is 343 big cats.

Each of those cats has 7 small cats for a total of 2401 small cats, which gives us a total of 2744 cats, each with 4 legs for 10976 legs + 14 for the girls=10990 legs.


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## Tank997 (Sep 2, 2007)

You are 100% correct Hotpepper I left the 7 bags each out of of my calculation, my mistake. And I agree with you about the question, if you read it literally it's impossible to answer because (as you said) it does not say if the girls have the bags on the bus, it also does not say if the girls have two legs, and it does not say if they are passangers on the bus of if the bus has a driver.


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## Scott Huish (Sep 2, 2007)

I think the cat 4 leg part is just distraction. I think it's safe to say that the question is asked in the understanding that most people have 2 legs. I think the only way to answer the question is to go with the information they give you and the only thing they said was inside was the girls, everything else is conjecture. There doesn't have to be a driver (with the information given there is no driver), because the question never said the bus was moving.


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## Andrew Fergus (Sep 2, 2007)

I agree.  Pick any answer but state your assumptions - which shouldn't be in conflict with the original question.  I introduced the driver merely as a joke.  I believe the answer is 14 (assuming only the girls are on the bus and not their bags, per the original question).


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