In general,
with n+1 people, the number of handshakes is the sum of the
first n consecutive numbers: 1+2+3+ ... + n. Since this sum is n(n+1)/2,
we need to solve the equation n(n+1)/2 = 66. This is the quadratic
equation n2+ n -132 = 0. Solving for n, we obtain 11 as the answer and
deduce that there were 12 people at the party.
