Question

At the start of lunch Jimmy and Jake each brought out a new bag of x marbles to play with their friends. By the end of lunch they were surprised to see they still had the same number as each other even though overall Jimmy had gained 5 marbles and Jake had ended up with two lots of 3 less than his original amount. How many marbles were originally in the bags?

Answer 1

There is no solution to the problem as stated.

Step-by-step explanation:

In this problem, we need to determine the original number of marbles in Jimmy's and Jake's bags. Let's start by defining some variables:

• Let x be the original number of marbles in Jimmy's bag.
• Let x be the original number of marbles in Jake's bag.

According to the given information, Jimmy gains 5 marbles by the end of lunch, so his final count is x + 5.

On the other hand, Jake ends up with two lots of 3 less than his original amount, so his final count is x - 6.

Since both Jimmy and Jake have the same number of marbles at the end of lunch, we can set up the following equation:

x + 5 = x - 6

Simplifying the equation, we get:

5 = -6

Since there is no value of x that satisfies this equation, it means there is no solution to the problem as stated.

Answer 2

You don’t know because they don’t say how many friends there are with marbles.