Question

A bowl contained 13 red and brown M&M's. There was three more red M&M's than brown M&M's. How many of each color are in the bowl?

Answer 1

Let's use variables to represent the number of red and brown M&M's in the bowl. We can use r for the number of red M&M's and b for the number of brown M&M's. From the problem, we know that:

r + b = 13 (the bowl contains 13 M&M's in total)
r = b + 3 (there are three more red M&M's than brown M&M's)

We can use substitution to solve for one of the variables. Substituting the second equation into the first, we get:

(b + 3) + b = 13

Simplifying the equation, we get:

2b + 3 = 13

Subtracting 3 from both sides, we get:

2b = 10

Dividing both sides by 2, we get:

b = 5

So there are 5 brown M&M's in the bowl. To find the number of red M&M's, we can use the second equation:

r = b + 3

Substituting b = 5, we get:

r = 5 + 3 = 8

So there are 8 red M&M's in the bowl. Therefore, there are 8 red and 5 brown M&M's in the bowl