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Marble Math
copyright 2011 L. F. Chao
Annie, Bob, and Cory are playing a game of marbles. They each start with a certain
number of marbles. In each round, the person with the least marbles wins the
round. The person who won gets to take the same number of marbles from each
player as the number of marbles he has at hand.
For example, in the beginning, Annie has 2 marbles, Bob has 3 marbles and Cory has
4 marbles. In the first round, Annie won. Here is a record of the game.
Rounds Annie won Bob won
Annie 2 6 5
Bob 3 1 3
Cory 4 2 1
Create your own record of one game of marbles here:
Annie
Bob
Cory
Here is a record of one game, but the first part of the record is destroyed by a
Green Poisonous Villain.
w gw
Annie
{ .~ ~
5
Bob
@ @
6
Cory
+- {
7
Could you help us restore the record?
Annie 5
Bob 6
Cory 7
.
Could you create another record of a game with some smugged part and let me
solve it?
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Making Your Own Puzzles
Make up your own record of a game and let other people solve it.
Clean Record keep it a secret. Dont let other people see it.
.
Smugged Record Can you restore it?
.
Clean Record keep it a secret. Dont let other people see it.
.
Smugged Record Can you restore it?
.
Clean Record keep it a secret. Dont let other people see it.
.
Smugged Record Can you restore it?
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Observe Patterns
Annie, Bob, and Cory want to make it simple and start with the least number of
marbles. They played a game using 1, 2 and 3 marbles. Could you help them finish
the game record?
Rounds 1 2 3 4 5 6
Winner
Annie 1
Bob 2
Cory 3
Did you observe a pattern in your record?
From the pattern, could you predict the result of the 8
th
round of the game?
Annie: ____ Bob:____ Cory:____
.
Annie, Bob, and Cory decide to double their marbles at the start of the game.
Challenge: Could you predict the result of the 8
th
round of the game without
writing down any result for the previous rounds?
Rounds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Winner
Annie 2
Bob 3
Cory 4
Challenge: Could you predict the result of the 12
th
round of the game?
Could you predict the result of the 14
th
round of the game?
Annie:____ Bob:____ Cory:____
Super Challenge: Could you predict the result of the 100
th
round of the game?
Annie: ____ Bob:____ Cory:____
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Annie, Bob and Cory decide to try another simple start as below.
Rounds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Winner
Annie 2
Bob 3
Cory 4
Did you observe a pattern building up? On which round are the marble numbers
almost the same as the first found?
Super Challenge: On which round would the game repeat itself? (when Annie has
two marbles, Bob has 3 and Cory has 4 marbles again.)
..
If you like, try another simple start below and see what pattern you could observe,
Rounds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Winner
Annie
Bob
Cory

If you like, try another simple start below and see what pattern you could observe,
Rounds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Winner
Annie
Bob
Cory
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Marble Game of 4 Persons
David also wants to join the game. Could you finish the game record below?
rounds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Winner
Annie 1
Bob 2
Cory 3
David 4
Did you observe an interesting pattern? What is it? From which round would the
game repeat itself?
Challenge: From the pattern, could you predict the result of the 8
th
round of the
game?
Annie: ____ Bob:____ Cory:____
Challenge: From the pattern, could you predict the result of the 13
th
round of the
game?
Annie: ____ Bob:____ Cory:____
Super Challenge: From the pattern, could you predict the result of the 100
th
round
of the game?
Annie: ____ Bob:____ Cory:____
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The players decide to double their marbles in the beginning as below. Would there
be a pattern also? Before you complete the record, predict what pattern would
appear in your record.
On which round does the game repeat itself?
rounds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Winner
Annie 2
Bob 4
Cory 6
David 8
The players decide to triple their marbles in the beginning instead. What kind of
pattern would appear in the record? Try to predict the pattern before you create
the record.
On which round does the game repeat itself?
Annie 3
Bob 6
Cory 9
David 12
Super Challenge: Could you observe the overall pattern from the above games?
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Marble Game of 4 Persons

Smugged record: Help! Could you restore the smugged record below?
++++ ++++ ++++ ++++
Annie
++++ ++++ ++++ ++++
5
Bob
++++ ++++ ++++ ++++
2
Cory
++++ ++++ ++++ ++++
3
David
++++ ++++ ++++ ++++
4
Clean Record: Thank you! You saved the day!
Annie
Bob
Cory
David
Did you observe another pattern from this game record?
Could you predict when the game would repeat itsef?
Could you predict the result of the 100
th
round of the game?
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Super Challenge:
Could you restore the smugged record below?
This is a challenge. 16, 8 and 4 are all a multiple of 4. Who could be the winner of
the last round?
@ggg ____
Annie
#### ++++ (w
7
Bob
++++ (w
16
Cory
~ w(
8
David
ww.
4
Clean Record Thank you for restoring it!
Annie 7
Bob 16
Cory 8
David 4
/var/www/apps/conversion/current/tmp/scratch_6/109454583.doc