If seven people meet each other and each shakes hands only once with each of the others, how many handshakes will there have been?

Answer 1

To find the number of handshakes, we can use the formula for the sum of the first n-1 positive integers, which is given by (n-1)n/2.

In this problem, n is equal to seven since there are seven people.

Using the formula, the number of handshakes will be (7-1) * 7/2 = 6 * 7/2 = 42/2 = 21.

Therefore, there will be 21 handshakes in total.