St. Ives Problem/Solution 1
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Classic Problem
- As I was going to St. Ives
- I met a man with seven wives
- Every wife had seven sacks
- Every sack had seven cats
- Every cat had seven kits
- Kits, cats, sacks and wives
- How many were going to St. Ives?
Solution
This is a trick puzzle, to which the trick answer is:
- $1$.
The narrator is travelling to St. Ives.
The man he meets, with the colossal entourage, is, by assumption of the definition of the word meet, travelling in the opposite direction, from St. Ives.
Technically, as it is not specified whether the narrator is travelling alone or not, the answer should actually be:
- at least $1$.
Sources
- 1992: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): The World's Oldest Puzzle: $3$
- Weisstein, Eric W. "St. Ives Problem." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/StIvesProblem.html