Puzzle time

[Mik]

Zero. Klaus played piano after which she was shunned.

[89th]

Is 20 too obvious of an answer? Probably.

[Jolly]

@Mik said in Puzzle time:

Zero. Klaus played piano after which she was shunned.

[Klaus]

Question: Do you assume that the two persons in each couple know each other? Sounds like a rather unrealistic assumption, but I want to be sure.

[Klaus]

Also, does a person shake his own hand (since we can safely assume that everone knows him- or herself)?

[Doctor Phibes]

Are these all university couples? If so, it would probably be quite hard for them to shake their own hands since they'll be so busy patting themselves on the back

[jon-nyc]

Klaus - they don’t shake their own hand or that of their pairing.

[kluurs]

@Mik said in Puzzle time:

Zero. Klaus played piano after which she was shunned.

Klaus expressed the desire for "she" to be used as his her preferred pronoun? Makes sense, I just wanted to confirm.

[89th]

I think 20 must be too obvious, so if we take the "and got a difference answer every time" key phrase, that means even individuals WITHIN a couple have difference answers, which means we need to find all the various valid combos out there...leaving Mrs. Klaus shaking 10 hands.

[mark]

It doesn't matter. They will all be dead from corona virus in a few weeks.

[jon-nyc]

Can’t just throw out a number, you have to say why

[jon-nyc]

This one took me a little while.

[Klaus]

OK, let's see.

Since there are at most 20 people anyone can shake hands with, the different numbers of the other 21 partygoers must be the numbers from 0 to 20...

[Klaus]

What I don't understand is how Ms. Klaus plays any designated role in your puzzle that would allow me to distinguish her from anyone else.

Let's say we name the other 21 persons p-0 to p-20, whereby p-0 shook 0 hands, p-1 shook 1 hands etc.

Ms. Klaus could be any p-i without raising a contradiction.

So, let's say Ms. Klaus is p-7 and shook hands with 7 other people. If the puzzle is well-designed, that should lead to some kind of contradiction. But I don't see a contradiction.

[Klaus]

Hm, wait a minute.

The guy with the 20 handshakes, p-20 must have shaken Ms. Klaus hand because he shook everyone's hand except his own partner's.

So Ms. Klaus cannot be p-0. And p-20's partner must be p-0, by the same argument.

Presumably this is the base case of some kind of inductive argument...

But on the other hand, what prevents Ms. Klaus from being p-20? Hmm...

[Klaus]

Ah, I think I got it.

p-20 must have shaken my hand and hence cannot be Ms. Klaus.
p-20's partner must have been p-0, who can hence also not be Ms. Klaus.

p-19 must have shaken my hand, too, because he didn't shake p-0's hand, hence p-19 cannot be Ms. Klaus either.
By the same argument as above, p-19's partner is p-1, who also cannot be Ms. Klaus.

If we continue in the same way until p-11 and p-9, we see that the only number that is left is p-10.

Ms. Klaus shook 10 hands.

Correct?

[jon-nyc]

No, your first statement is not correct.

Hint - first find out how many hands you shook.

[Klaus]

Oh, I see. I think my solution is still correct.

p-20 must be married to p-0, ..., p-11 must be married to p-9.

Hence my wife can't be any of p-0,...,p-9 or p-11 to p-20, because I'm not among the ones they are married to.

That leaves only the p-10 spot for her.

[Klaus]

Here's the full solution.

p-0 : {}
p-1 : {p-20}
p-2 : {p-19,p-20}
...
p-9 : {p-12,....,p-20}
p-10 = Ms. Klaus : {p-11,...,p-20}
p-11 : {Mr. Klaus, Ms. Klaus, p-12, ..., p-20}
p-12 : {Mr. Klaus, Ms. Klaus, p-9, p-11, p-13, ..., p-20}
p-13 : {Mr. Klaus, Ms. Klaus, p-8, p-9, p-11,p-12, p-14, ..., p-20}
...
p-20: {Mr. Klaus, Ms. Klaus, p-1, .., p-9, p-11,...,p-19}
Mr. Klaus: {p-11,...,p-20}

Is this not correct?

[Doctor Phibes]

Typical German. You should just ask her.