At the end of a match, nine players shake hands with each other once. How many handshakes will there be altogether?
At the end of a match, nine players shake hands with each other once. How many handshakes will there be altogether?
Explanation
To find the number of handshakes:
Each of the 9 players shakes hands with the other 8 players, but this counts each handshake twice (once for each player). To avoid double-counting, we use the formula:
Number of handshakes = n(n-1)/2
= 9(9-1)/2
= 9 × 8 / 2
= 36