At the opening session of the united states supreme court, each justice shakes hands with all the others. there are nine justices that sit on the supreme court. how many handshakes do they make during the opening session?
a. 32 handshakes
b. 36 handshakes
c. 45 handshakes
d. 81 handshakes select the best answer from the choices provided a b c d

From the given, we can create a scenario to better understand the situation. 

The first person will have to shake hands with eight (8) people. The second one, will have to shake with only seven (7) people because shaking hands with the first person will not be done again. The third person will have to shake hands with only six (6) people for the same reasoning as already stated above. This goes on until the last person will have to shake hand with no one anymore because all have already shaken hands with him.

The equation for determining the number of handshakes done is,
      n = 8 + 7 + 6 + ... + 1 = 36

ANSWER: B. 36 handshakes