Kits, Cats, Sacks, Wives, and Directions

[eredien]

So, weirdquark and I were thinking again.

We should stop that.

As I was going to St. Ives
I met a man with seven wives.
Each wife had seven sacks.
Each sack had seven cats.
Each cat had seven kits.
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives:
how many were going to St. Ives?

And today a thought struck me:
Who's to say that they weren't all going in the same direction after all?

So we worked it out.
343 kits per sack.
49 cats per sack.
That's 392 felines per sack, folks.
Times seven sacks equals 2, 744 fuzzy creatures per wife.
Times seven wives equals 19,208 felines total.
Plus the seven wives, the man, and me: 19,217 beings.

If, that is, they are all going in the same direction after all.

For our next trick, we'll estimate the weight of the cats.

What were they doing with all those cats?

And why was the cheese standing alone?

Comments

[kaypendragon.livejournal.com]

The cheese stands alone because no one wants to stand next to the smelly cheese.

[kirath.livejournal.com]

Well... know what?
The only one going to St. Ives were you. Everyone else were going in opposite direction, _from_ St. Ives. Or else how would you meet them in the first place? :)

[mithent.livejournal.com]

And how can these wives carry 2,744 felines?

[nightengalesknd.livejournal.com]

Well, if I were going to St. Ives, just by myself, I might well walk faster than, and thus overtake 7 women carrying 49 cats apiece, even if we were going in the same direction.

[signy1.livejournal.com]

I used to love that riddle when I was a kid. I must have pencil-and-papered it out a dozen times over. Then I started wondering A: why they needed all those cats and B: why the husband didn't get off his lazy ass and help carry the things, with occasional thoughts in the direction of C: how angry all those cats were going to be once they opened the sacks...

[kirath.livejournal.com]

Technically, yes. But the "correct" answer to the riddle is the one I gave. I even saw it in the same rhymed form as the riddle itself, though, for some reasons (it was in Russian and I don't remember exact wording) I can't provide it here.

[eredien]

Ah, but the rhyme doesn't specifiy exactly. Sure, it was definitely at least yourself...but they could have been traveling in the same direction and you met up with them on the road, so to say.

[greyhawk.livejournal.com]

You, my dear, have far too much free time on your hands. :P

[greyhawk.livejournal.com]

Maybe they stopped to rest? I mean, carrying that much would take a bit out of you. Or maybe it was near dusk and so they were settled in for dinner, but because there were so many of them, they had to settle in sooner than you did, going it solo?

This doesn't eliminate the possibility of insanity, in which case maybe they were going to St. Ives in INTENT, but were really waking away from it, in which case, assuming they walked all the way around the world, they are going to St. Ives, they're just taking the very very very very very very very very very very very very scenic route.