******* The Car Talk Puzzler Psychic Friends Network*******

>From The Desk Of

Maury Maille
Puzzler Tower
Car Talk Plaza
Hahvahd Squayah
Our Fair City

This Week's Puzzler: The Curious Math of Shaking Hands

RAY: This was sent in by Roger Cook, back in May, 2000.

TOM: Hey, at least people know you're not throwing the stuff away!

RAY: I never throw anything away. Roger writes, "My wife and I went to my company's 
holiday party recently, and there were 53 people there. Because there were some new 
hires not everyone knew everyone else, so there were introductions and hand-shaking, 
of course. In the car going home afterwards, my wife said, 'Geez, I don't know how 
many handshakes there were in all, but, I do know there were two people present who 
shook the exact same number of hands.'

I said, "How did you know that?"

And that's the question.

Think you know?

Drop us a note via

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with your answer.

If you're right and we select your answer, we'll ship you a $26 Shameless Commerce 
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Remember last week's classic puzzler? A Crop of the Oddest Kind

RAY: You're going to like this puzzler. It's short and sweet.

TOM: They all start out that way but between there and your lips anything can happen!

RAY: This puzzler was sent in by Chris Inman. Chris writes:

"Last summer, I was driving across the country from the East coast to the West coast. 
I was somewhere in Kansas and it was around noontime. I was surrounded by farms that 
were raising only a single crop and it was beautiful to look at, but confusing to 
understand. When I looked to my right, I saw fields of yellow. When I looked to my 
left, I saw fields of green. And yet, just a single crop was being grown."

My question is: How can that be?

Here's how:

http://www.cartalk.com/content/puzzler/

So, did you figure it out?

Yours in weekly puzzler torment,

Maury Maille
Puzzler Dissemination Specialist
Car Talk Plaza
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