7 men have 7 wives Riddle : Solution Explained


Riddles Details : 

"7 men have 7 wives. Each man and each wife has 7 children. What is the total number of people?"


Solution Explained:

This isn’t so much of a riddle, it’s actually more of a math problem, and if you sit down with a pen, paper, and calculator, you can probably work it out. But, your answer will differ depending on how you read the question, which is what makes it so Different. 

There are actually a few possible answers to this riddle depending on how you read the question, and no one can agree on which one is correct.


I have explained 3 possible solutions to this problem
One possible answer is 63, but how do you get there? let me explain now.
  • Well, if 7 men have 7 wives, that means they have one wife each so that will be 7 + 7 = 14.
  • Then, each wife has 7 children, so that will be 7 x 7 = 49.
  • Next, we add the children to the men and wives and get 49 + 14 = 63.
  • So the total number of people is 63.
But what if you got the answer 399? 
You’re not wrong, you just read the question differently. according to this reading
  • If each of the 7 men had 7 wives each, that would be 7 x 7 = 49 wives.
  • Then, we need to add on the 7 men, so that’s 49 + 7 = 56.
  • Next, we have to work out the number of children, which is 7 x 7 x 7 =343.
  • Then we add the number of men and wives to the children and get 343 + 56 = 399.
  • So the total number of people is 399.
Or did you work the answer out to be 21? That could also be correct. here is how we get to answer 21
  • If 7 men have 7 wives that simply means there are 7 coupled, so that is 7 +7 = 14.
  • Then, if each couple has a child, that’s 14 + 7 = 21.
  • So the total number of people is 21.
this problem can have other solutions as well, do share your answer in the comment section.

You may like these posts:

1 comment:

  1. This is not only a question of arithmetic, but logic. The obvious answers based on monogamous relationships can be eliminated because we are told that 90% of people fail. This means each individual man has seven wives. Logically, each individual adult will not have seven children from prior relationships. That’s statistically impossible, financially improbable, and spatially unlikely. In addition blood relation has nothing to do with whether you consider a child yours, so it doesn’t matter where the children came from, only that they reside in the care of the man and his wives under one roof. This can be assumed based on the very large number of step children and adoptees across the world who are treated as a persons very own. Therefore, ALL the adults in the house would likely look at ALL the kids as their children. So, that means there are seven children in each household of one man and seven women. I could actually provide further logic to back this up but we will stop here.

    That only leaves one possible solution. One man + Seven Women + Seven Children x Seven households or (1+7+7)7=105.

    ReplyDelete