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Here's a puzzle I heard some time ago, but I never heard the asker's solution. It took me ages to think up a satisfactory solution, but I'm wondering if there are any others you can think of?

100 Marbles Puzzle:

A boy has two bags with marbles in. He has exactly twice as many marbles in one bag as in the other bag. He pours the marbles out and counts them. There are exactly 100 marbles and all the marbles are whole and unbroken.

How many marbles were in each bag to begin with?

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  • $\begingroup$ I was sure I had seen a puzzle like this one before on this stack, but I can't find it. $\endgroup$
    – SQB
    Oct 7, 2014 at 10:14
  • $\begingroup$ Hello, and welcome to Puzzling Stack Exchange! The markdown for spoilers is: >! spoiler message. $\endgroup$
    – user20
    Oct 7, 2014 at 21:23

1 Answer 1

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Fifty marbles in the inner bag, and fifty marbles and a bag containing fifty more marbles in the outer bag.

EDIT: How did I get to that result? Easy: Apart from the basic math, lateral thinking puzzles are all the same!

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  • $\begingroup$ Thats the one I thought of too (though a lot slower than you!) In which case I guess its the real answer I missed. Thanks $\endgroup$
    – David
    Oct 7, 2014 at 7:55

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