The Riddler's Undiscovered Secret

[riddler010]

Hello fellow forum-goers it is I, the Riddler. Though Batman left me running around a trap of my own making in Arkham City, it is I who shall have the last laugh, because he has not discovered all my secrets. In fact no one has. Somewhere in Arkham City there is a tantalizing treasure or Easter Egg if you will that I have hidden. Only I know where this undiscovered secret is and if you want to find out you will have to solve my riddles.
Here is the first one:

A man named Robert Plank went to a park.
He sat at a tree and had his lunch.
He felt something sting his back.
Unfortunately he had sat underneath a bee's nest.
The bees started to rapidly sting him.
He ran home only to discover that he had been stung 108 times.
He determined that each bee had stung him at least 2 times but no more than 6 times.
Also he was positive that there were no more than 50 bees.
How many bees were there?

[Matches_Malone]

36 bees

10 characters

[riddler010]

36 bees

10 characters

Neither answer is correct.

[Matches_Malone]

Hmm. Inquiry: Is it supposed to be an even number of bees? If not: 5.4 bees.

[invalid]

Neither answer is correct.

10 characters is what people type when their post is too short, not an answer.

Firstly, bees can only sting ONCE.

Ignoring that, if it's a simple math question then I'm afraid there are multiple answers unless you forgot to add more conditions.
If we assume every bee stung Robert an equal number of times then it becomes simple division.
108/2 = 54. we rule out this answer because of the condition that there were no more than 50
108/3 = 36
108/4 = 27
108/5 = 21.6
108/6 = 18

now you said no more that 6 stings and at least 2 each per bee (which again, bees only have one) so we could have multiple situations where a third of the bees sting 5 times, the other 6 etc etc.

Either the question needs more parameters or it's not about the bees at all.

[Matches_Malone]

10 characters is what people type when their post is too short, not an answer.

Firstly, bees can only sting ONCE.

Ignoring that, if it's a simple math question then I'm afraid there are multiple answers unless you forgot to add more conditions.
If we assume every bee stung Robert an equal number of times then it becomes simple division.
108/2 = 54. we rule out this answer because of the condition that there were no more than 50
108/3 = 36
108/4 = 27
108/5 = 21.6
108/6 = 18

now you said no more that 6 stings and at least 2 each per bee (which again, bees only have one) so we could have multiple situations where a third of the bees sting 5 times, the other 6 etc etc.

Either the question needs more parameters or it's not about the bees at all.

His reference to the 10 characters was a form of mockery, I believe.

I came up with the equation 2b+3b+4b+5b+6b=108 | b=bees | 108=total stings | other numbers=variations of times stung. The total bees comes to 5.4, which isn't a solid number but it's the best one I can come up with. It's been a good number of years since my last math class, but I believe that's the right approach.

[invalid]

His reference to the 10 characters was a form of mockery, I believe.

I came up with the equation 2b+3b+4b+5b+6b=108 | b=bees | 108=total stings | other numbers=variations of times stung. The total bees comes to 5.4, which isn't a solid number but it's the best one I can come up with. It's been a good number of years since my last math class, but I believe that's the right approach.

You actually need a different variable for each of the sting number 2 to 6.
Otherwise you end up solving for every bee stinging 20 times. If the max number of stings per bee is 6 then 5.4 bees can only sting a total of around 30 times. Not the required 108.

I still think the question is incomplete or we're being trolled somehow. A 5-variable equation is not going to give one answer.

[batzlemanzle]

The question was not how many bees stung Mr. Plank, but how many bees were in the nest. The average beehive is home to approximately 60,000 bees. Nice try, but you couldn't fool me.

[chipperMDW]

If a bee can really sting more than once, then there could have been anywhere from 18 to 50 bees. There's just not enough information to get any more precise than that.

But bees can normally only sting once before ripping their guts out and dying. So you probably messed up the riddle by mentioning that they were bees at all. You probably wanted to say something like "he sat under a hive," "the insects started stinging him," "he knew there were no more than 50 insects," and "how many bees were there?" And the answer would have been, "none, because they were wasps," or something like that.

It's kinda like the one where you ask, "If a peacock lays an egg on the roof, does it roll north or south?" and the answer is supposed to be "neither; peacocks don't lay eggs."

I came up with the equation 2b+3b+4b+5b+6b=108 | b=bees | 108=total stings | other numbers=variations of times stung. The total bees comes to 5.4, which isn't a solid number but it's the best one I can come up with. It's been a good number of years since my last math class, but I believe that's the right approach.

Huh? That equation just says "If there were 20 bees and 108 stings, and the stings were divided evenly among the bees, then each one stung 5.4 times." Not even close.

EDIT: Although, given your description of the variables, it actually says "if each bee stings exactly 20 times..." which is completely outside the parameters of the problem.

[invalid]

If a bee can really sting more than once, then there could have been anywhere from 18 to 50 bees. There's just not enough information to get any more precise than that.

But bees can normally only sting once before ripping their guts out and dying. So you probably messed up the riddle by mentioning that they were bees at all. You probably wanted to say something like "he sat under a hive," "the insects started stinging him," "he knew there were no more than 50 insects," and "how many bees were there?" And the answer would have been, "none, because they were wasps," or something like that.

It's kinda like the one where you ask, "If a peacock lays an egg on the roof, does it roll north or south?" and the answer is supposed to be "neither; peacocks don't lay eggs."


Huh? That equation just says "If there were 20 bees and 108 stings, and the stings were divided evenly among the bees, then each one stung 5.4 times." Not even close.

You just pretty much took what I said