Sr. John and his wife went to a party where four other married couples were present. Every person shook hands whit everyone he or she was no acquainted with. When the handshaking was over , Sir John asked everyone how many hands they shook.

Question

Sir. John was surprised when he got nine different answers.

How many hands didi Sir. John's wife shake?

Answer 1

Assume that none of the couples knew each other, but hopefully each of the married people would be acquainted with their spouse

so Sir John's wife would shake hands with 8 other people (not with Sir John)

(My question to you:
How many different handshakes took place ? )

Answer 2

It appears Sir John did not answer the question (nine different answers) so if everyone knew their spouse, the answers were 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Since there is no indication of who knew whom, Sir John's wife could be any of 0 through 8. There were 36 handshakes in total.