Question

There are 5 marbles. There are RED, GREEN, and BLUE. The BLUE marble is 2 more than RED and GREEN combined. The RED marble is 1 less than GREEN. How many does each colored marble have?

Answer 1

1/4 of a red marble

5/4 green marbles

14/4 blue marbles.

Explanation:

Make a system of equations.

There are 5 marbles, so r + g + b = 5.

There is 2 more of blue marbles than red + green so b - 2 = r + g

There is 1 less red marble than green marbles so g = r + 1.

Then substitute.

b - 2 = r + r + 1

b = 2r + 3

r + r + 1 + 2r + 3 = 5

4r + 4 = 5

4r = 1

r = 1/4

g = 1/4 + 1

g = 5/4

1/4 + 5/4 + b = 5

6/4 + b = 20/4

b = 14/4

Plug them back into the equation and it checks out.

*Note : I don't know how this would work in real life but it's the answer.