how many please!

[saintpeter48]

how many are there in two pairs of couples?

[BigMac]

Is 8 too obvious? Have I fallen into a trap?

[08012006]

Unless we are referring to the family of, say,
Fred Couples (born October 3, 1959), an American professional golfer and former World No. 1 who competes on the PGA Tour. He has won numerous events, and is most famous for winning the 1992 Masters Tournament.

[saintpeter48]

i have the answer as being 4, i heard or read it somewhere but need it to be clarified for a quiz question that i am setting. good answer re fred couples, lol.

[squarebear]

The trouble is that pair and couple are the same word for two.

A couple is two, so a pair of couples is four. Two pairs of couples should therefore be eight.

It's like asking how many in a dozen of twelve.

[BigMac]

OK, I'll "show my working":

One couple = 2; One pair = 2; and Two = 2

therefore

two pairs = 4; and four couples (4x2) = 8

[squarebear]

Yes the answer is eight as you have said.

[DaisyMae]

It is possible that saitpeter48 is right if you take one couple to be a unit in its own right. One couple would be one, and two pairs = 4, therefore, two pairs of couples would be 4.

[lajohn]

8. i agree with BigMac's explanation.

[squarebear]

But the question was "how many (people) are in..."
There would be 8 people in. If you went by that you could ask:

Q. How many are in a couple?
A. One (A couple is a unit in its own right)


To be honest, I would choose a different question as people can view this either way.