Question

Karen has a bag of marbles. The ratio of pink marbles to the total number of marbles is 9:30. There are 11 purple marbles and 3 yellow marbles. The remaining marbles are orange. What is the ratio of orange marbles to total marbles?

Answer 1

There is an infinite number of solutions.

Explanation:

Let's say there is a total of 30 marbles.

The number of pink marbles then is 9.

There are 11 purple marbles.

There are 3 yellow marbles,

9 + 11 + 3 = 23 and 30 - 23 = 7

There are 7 orange marbles.

The ratio of orange to total is 7:30.

Now let's say there is a total of 60 marbles.

The number of pink marbles then is 18, keeping the 9:30 ratio.

There are 11 purple marbles.

There are 3 yellow marbles,

18 + 11 + 3 = 32 and 60 - 32 = 28

There are 28 orange marbles.

The ratio of orange to total is 28:60 = 7:15.

This problem has different answers depending on the total number of marbles, so it cannot be solved for a unique solution.

Answer 2

25:14

Explanation:

there are 39 total marbles, and 14 are purple or yellow, so the remaining orange marbles are 25.

(Hope it helps :) )