Multiple choice general knowledge math & puzzles

A man had 12 sheep. All but 9 died. How many sheep did he have left?

  1. 6

  2. 3

  3. 9

  4. 12

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The phrase 'all but 9 died' means that 9 sheep survived and the rest died. Since he started with 12 sheep and 'all except 9' died, he has 9 sheep left. This is a trick question - people often mistakenly subtract 9 from 12 (getting 3) or misread 'all but' as 'all'. Option A (6) and B (3) are common errors, while D (12) ignores that some sheep died.

AI explanation

To answer this question, we need to calculate how many sheep the man had left after all but 9 died.

The man initially had 12 sheep, and all but 9 died. This means that 12 - 9 = 3 sheep died.

Therefore, the man has 9 sheep left.

The correct answer is option C) 9.