The answer is 5 children.
Detailed Explanation
The problem states:
“A mother has 4 daughters. Each daughter has a brother. How many children does the mother have?”
Many people read quickly and assume that each daughter has a different brother, which would give:
4 daughters
4 brothers
= 8 children ❌
But that’s not what it says.
The phrase “Each daughter has a brother” simply means that each of the four daughters has a brother, and it could very well be the same boy.
So we have:
4 daughters
1 brother (common to all 4 daughters)
Total: 4 + 1 = 5 children. ✅
Why is this a trick question?
This type of puzzle plays on our tendency to make assumptions that aren’t stated in the text.
The problem never says:
that each daughter has a different brother;
that there are several boys.
He only says that there is a brother for each of the girls, which is perfectly true if they share the same brother.
Final answer
The mother has 5 children: 4 girls and 1 boy. ✅
