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During a plague of rats in Hamelin the local dignitaries set the town cats on them. Each cat caught the same number of rats and a total of 1,111,111 were killed. What is the fewest number of cats who could have accomplished this task?

Hi Simone.

One cat?

JimC

Alternatively, 239x4649 are factors of 1,111,111 ... so the answer might be 239.

Or it might be a trick question (eg answer 127 cats) ....

JimC

JimC

Hi again.

I suppose that the answer could even be zero cats if the rats but they were killed by some other means once the cats had caught them.

JimC

Another question from the current GBQ - which still has two weeks to run. The quizsetter has specifically asked that his questions are not asked on any quiz site, so please respect his wishes. This particular question could have been worked out in a manner of minutes with an excel spreadsheet.

Hi BJ.

My apologies to the quiz setter if any distress has been caused. I didn't know where the question was from.

If it's any consolation, any or all of the 4 suggested answers I gave may be entirely wrong (personally I like the suggestions in posts #2 & #4).

JimC

how does #2 work JimC? 'Each cat caught the same number' If one caught them all the others caught none, no?

Hi JimC, Apologies, I wasn't getting at you - my comments were aimed at Simone, who, as she does the quiz, must also know the rules. And she didn't even have the courage/curtesy to say where the question was from.

Hi again.

Agree with you BJ (about full disclosure).

For Iris, re: post #2 ...

Well, if "... the town cats ..." is equivalent to "all the cats in the town" and there is only one cat in the town, then each involved cat (ie the one cat) would have caught 1,111,111 rats.

A stretch, I admit.

JimC