Here is a riddle that you might have seen. This is a classic riddle of “7 men have 7 wives.” Depending on your perspective, you may have gotten a plethora of answers. But what’s the right one? Let us find out.
Riddles have been the mainstay of jest and wonder for humans forever. Since time immemorial, riddles have provided people with a sort of entertainment and wonder, and it still does that to this day. The Art behind creating a riddle is nothing short of marvellous as it takes quite a bit of brain power. During the recent lockdown due to Covid-19, social media sites were filled with all sorts of riddles, some annoying and some wondrous, and you had to know what it was. That’s the thing with Riddles. It seeps into your subconscious curiosity and compels you to see the answer.
Here’s the riddle:
Seven men have seven wives. Each man and wife have seven children. How many people are there in total?
This isn’t basically a riddle but a math problem, which you can probably solve if you sit down with a pen, calculator and paper.
However, depending on how you read the question, your answer will differ, which is what makes it so annoying.
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The Answer of ‘7 MEN HAVE 7 WIVES.’
Do you believe you’ve figured it out? The answer is…
399 or 63 or 21.
Depending on how you read the question, this riddle has several possible answers, and no one can agree on which one is correct.
We have explained each answer below!
‘SEVEN MEN HAVE SEVEN WIVES’ RIDDLE EXPLAINED
Remember, the answer depends on your perspective of the question asked.
The actual answer is 63. but how do you get there?
So, if seven men have seven wives, that means they each have one wife, so 7 + 7 = 14.
Then, since each wife has seven children, the total will be seven times seven, or 49.
The children are added to the men and wives, yielding 49 + 14 = 63.
So there are a total of 63 people.
But what if your answer was 399? You are not incorrect; you simply misread the question.
If each of the seven men had seven wives, the total would be seven times seven, or 49 wives.
Then we add the seven men, for a total of 49 + 7 = 56.
Then we must calculate the number of children, which is 7 x 7 x 7 = 343.
The number of men and their wives is then added to the number of children, yielding 343 + 56 = 399.
So there are 399 people in total.
Or did you figure out that the answer was 21? That could also be correct.
If seven men have seven wives, it simply means that there are seven couples, so 7 + 7 = 14.
If each couple has a child, the total is 14 + 7 = 21.
As a result, the total number of people is 21.
This is one of the more perplexing riddles out there. I think this is one of those riddles that doesn’t have just one correct answer. In fact, all the answers above are correct based on the reader’s perspective. Which of the following answers do you believe is right?
I hope you liked this explanation of “7 men have 7 wives.” Stay tuned for more!
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