The Solution

Suppose there were ‘p’ persons of whom ‘w’ were women.

In the first round, as Captain Haddock had passed out, he did not shake hands. Thus only (p – 1) persons shook hands. Snowy must have counted (p – 1)*(p -2)/2 handshakes.

In the second round, Captain Haddock shook hands with ‘w’ women.

Thus (p – 1)*(p -2)/2 + w = 31. We hit a wall, as we have to find w*100/p, which is just not possible!

But there has to be a solution, right? If the conventional one fails we can always try the unconventional method. However, I am sure some of our smart scholar readers would like to suggest a conventional solution too. We would love to have their method.

Meanwhile, easy does it! The Smart Scholar Method

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