girls on a bus
There are 7 girls in a bus.
Each girl has 7 backpacks.
In each backpack, there are 7 big cats.
For every big cat there are 7 little cats.
Question: How many legs are there in the bus?
This is a real math problem so don’t say that a bus has no legs. And there is no driver.
The answer will be in the first comment, along with a breakdown, so don’t click until you REALLY give up. You might be surprised at how tricky this is and also how many people can’t get it right. Although, I have high hopes for Robin.
[from val.]
10990
7 x 2 girl legs = 14
343 x 4 big cat legs = 1372
2401 x 4 little cat legs = 9604
1582…?
(7 girls)(2 legs) = 14
(7 girls)(each with 7 big cats)(4 legs) = 196
(49 big cats)(each with 7 little cats)(4 legs) = 1372
Got it right, though it seemed easy enough that I was expecting a trick. Is it that you’re supposed to forget to count the girls’ legs?
I was also half-expecting that it would be one of those annoying deals where there’s a bus driver or something.
Got it right. I’ve seen this problem before on “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?”, so I kinda cheated…
@rob:
The trick is that people forget that each girl has 7 backpacks.
Got it right, but I used a calculator - hope thats ok.
I was aware of the girls legs, but I almost got fooled by simply multiplying by 7 over and over again - which will give you an incorrect answer.
I got 28.
Hopefully I added 1 and 10 right and this comment posts.
same here, i left out the 7 girls’s leg …
10976 + 14 = 10990
it was only the last past i used the calc …
1568*7= …
hahahaha
Doh!
How about this riddle…
The person who makes it, sells it.
The person who buys it, never uses it.
The person who uses it, never sees it.
What is it?
it’s sad to admit but i was no where close. i’m surprised i could even add 1 and 5 to post a comment.
miss you and your insanity
I got it right.
I thought it was potentially going to be a trick question because it really only stated that the girls were on the bus. The fact that they have 7 backpacks each with an excessive amount of felines was never really stated that they were also on the bus with them, just that they possessed them. So, the answer could have potentially 14.
On a side note… they should all be arrested for animal cruelty, unless they are carrying the cats to a Chinese market to be sold and added to my up and coming Peking Fried Rice and Chicken Lo Mein, in which it’s excusable.
Someone sent this riddle to me in a forward a few weeks ago. It was called something like,”Can You Outsmart a 5th Grade Asshole?”. Once you came up with a number you were supposed to use that number as a code to open a file and add your name to it. Add your name to the list of smarty pants math nerds. Well, I did the math, was SURE that I got it right, and smugly plugged the number. It didn’t open. w/t/f? So I deleted the email and thought, “I don’t care. I’m good at other things besides math. I don’t even like people that are good at math… I like painting. Nerds. Elitists”.
In reading this post and comments i liked the people who claimed to be so bad at math that they were surprised to have added the numbers correctly in order to post their comment. I connected with them. i know they they are good at other things. Things cooler then math. Then I realized that I actually DID solve the riddle- i DID come up with the right number. Now I am feeling very clever. And included with the rest of you nerds. So much so that I just wrote this comment to let you all know that I DID IT TOO. And luckily I only had to add 10 and 0 in order to post it!
Oh and I also think Randy is very clever. It really did only state that the girls were on the bus. So maybe everyone but Randy is wrong. But his comment about the Chinese food is fucked up.
so, each backpack has about 48kg of cats (4kg for each cat, and 400g per kitten)? each girl has to carry 350kg of backpacks? do we assume each girl carries each backpack seperately into the bus? or is the bus driver (without legs?) helping with the backpacks? the good thing is, despite the huge amount of legs, a regular bus wouldn’t be overloaded yet. And assuming that the cats are not dead cats, they WILL escape the backpacks. fun bus ride. if they are all dead cats, aren’t there better methods to transport dead cats in bulk (2.5t)?
I was able to keep track of all the girls and cats — the big cats’ legs may be overlooked more often than those of the girls — but confess that I added to 10,000 rather than 10,990 and was so enchanted by the round number solution that I failed to double-check my answer before clicking through. 10,000 would have been sweet, yes?
I am stumped by the riddle above, which probably should disqualify me from contributing this head-scratcher (from a recent Car Talk episode):
Driving along, Terry notices that the last four digits on the odometer are palindromic. A mile later, the last five digits are palindromic. Two miles later, all six are palindromic. What was the odometer reading when Terry first looked at it?
Well, I have seen this problem before, and I’m not too blonde to admit I still don’t frieken get it. Let me break the damned thing down for you.
7 girls x 2 legs each = 14 legs. riiiiiight.
7 girls x 7 bags = 49 big cats x 4 legs = 196 legs
49 big cats x 7 little cats = 343 little cats x 4 legs = 1372 legs.
Answer 1582 legs. I even went so far as to think, okay, so who’s driving the bus with all these little girls and cats on it? and added two to the answer for the driver’s legs. Answer 1584.
I truly cannot fathom how the rest of you got to 10,990.
I’m gonna lie down before I hurt myself.
And as for Robin…… that odometer question deserves a slap!!!