Cats In Square Room Riddle : Solution Explained

 Riddle Details: The riddle states that

"In a square room, there is a cat in every corner. There are three cats in front of each cat." The riddle asks the total number of cats present inside the square room. Can you solve the riddle?

 

Solution Explained : 

There are multiple solutions for this riddle depending on the interpretation. 

If you read that there are 4 cats in the room and in front of each cat is another 3 cats, then it might lead you to the answer of 16. This is not correct. 

You will have reached this answer if you assumed that there were 3 cats in front of every cat in the corner. That would mean 4 cats in every corner ( 4 x 4 = 16). 

Let's understand the riddle properly to achieve the correct solution.

From the first statement “In a square room there is a cat in every corner” it is clear that there is a square room with a cat in each corner of the room. Since a square has 4 corners, the total number of cats present in the room is 4. 

The next line states that "There are three cats in front of each cat". We know that there are 4 cats in the corners of the room, when we apply the 2nd statement to this scenario, it is clear that every single cat in the room has 3 cats in front of it. 

This one solution to this riddle is 4.

let me explain now, the different interpretation

The total number of cats in this square room will be in the range of 4 to infinity. Let’s break this riddle down.

“In each corner of a square room is a sitting cat.” A square room has four corners, one cat per corner, so four cats so far.

“In front of each cat, there are 3 cats.” An important but missing piece of information is which way each cat from each corner is facing. If the four cats are all facing each other, then each cat is facing three cats from the other corners. Therefore, there are still four cats in total.

But if any one of the four cats turns and faces their respective corner, then there will be infinite cats (and infinite mischief). This is to meet the condition that each cat faces three cats. It is a result of recursion without a terminating condition.