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Marbles Bonanza (Posted on 2003-09-08) Difficulty: 4 of 5
You have an empty container, and an infinite number of marbles, each numbered with an integer from 1 to infinity.

At the start of the minute, you put marbles 1 - 10 into the container, then remove one of the marbles and throw it away. You do this again after 30 seconds, then again in 15 seconds, and again in 7.5 seconds. You continuosly repeat this process, each time after half as long an interval as the time before, until the minute is over.

Since this means that you repeated the process an infinite number of times, you have "processed" all your marbles.

How many marbles are in the container at the end of the minute if for every repetition (numbered N)

A. You remove the marble numbered (10 * N)

B. You remove the marble numbered (N)

See The Solution Submitted by levik    
Rating: 3.6154 (13 votes)

Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
duh | Comment 66 of 87 |

everyone knows that even if you only add 1 thing an infinite number of times....you will have an infinite number of things

i think people are getting confused with the fact that you're taking one out each time

look at it this way....EVERY time....you add 10 and take away 1.......that equals 9.....so EVERY time....you're adding 9

9 * infinity = infinty...no matter what.....this is SIMPLE


  Posted by Nichole on 2004-06-11 21:32:59
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