To find the number of possible handshakes in a seminar with 8 participants, we can use the combination formula.

In a handshake, each pair of participants shakes hands exactly once. The number of ways to choose 2 participants out of 8 to shake hands is given by the combination formula:

$\text{Number of handshakes} = \binom{8}{2} = \frac{8 \times 7}{2 \times 1} = 28$

So, there are 28 possible handshakes among the 8 participants.

Would you like more details on this calculation or have any other questions?

Here are some related questions you might find interesting:

1. How many handshakes would there be if there were 10 participants?
2. What if 2 participants refused to shake hands with anyone—how many handshakes then?
3. How does the formula change if we only want to count handshakes among a specific group, say 5 participants?
4. What would happen if each participant could shake hands multiple times with the same person?
5. How can we represent this problem using a graph theory approach?

Tip: The combination formula $\binom{n}{r}$ is used to find the number of ways to choose $r$ objects from $n$ without regard to order. It’s widely applicable in problems involving selection and grouping.