Brain teaser. Could be off topic!

[pford86]

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?

 

[NateO]

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.

 

[tafigueroa]

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

 

[TrippyTom]

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

 

[Andrew Fergus]

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

 

[TrippyTom]

doh! I knew I forgot something. THE DRIVER!

 

[tafigueroa]

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.

 

[Lewiy]

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?

 

[Domski]

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

Dom

 

[NumbersMax]

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!