Question

Five people are at a party. Everyone shakes hands once with everyone else. How many handshakes are there? Show your

work.



HELP ASAP PLEASE!!!!!

Answer 1

10

Explanation:

Let the people be represented by numbers (1,2,3,4,5)

-- now 1 shakes hands with the remaining 4, (i.e 2,3,4,5)

-- 2 shakes hands with the remaining 3 (i.e 3,4,5) as it has already shaken hands with 1

-- 3 shakes hands with the remaining two and so on

If you recognize the pattern there are 4+3+2+1 handshakes that have taken place, or 10 handshakes

Answer 2

10

Explanation:

1 2 3 4 5

1 shakes hands with 2,3,4,5

2 shakes hands with 3,4,5 but not with 1 because they already shook hands once

similarly, 3 only shakes hands with 4 and 5, same reason as abov

4 with 5 only, same reason