Confusion surrounding torrent use?

[DeathbatGirl1]

Seeders are people who have finished downloading it and you download the file off the seeders, The more seeders the faster the download

 

[TheKillerInstinct]

I've just started using torrents for legitimate purposes and want to download this particular software that's come of age and is no longer distributed. So the torrent says that it has 1 seeder and 6 peers. A week later(Today) I check it out and it says that it has 2 seeders. How could it have changed so drastically. I didn't think it could work that way.

 

[JoelKatz]

Probably all 6 peers finished downloading it and all but one of them has stopped handling it. One of the previous peers could now be seeding. Or a new seeder could have started up.