Question

The coffee shop has green mugs and blue mugs. There are 6 less than three times as many

blue coffee mugs as green coffee mugs. There are 42 blue coffee mugs. How many green
coffee mugs are there?

Answer 1

There are 16 green coffee mugs.

You have to work backwards in order to get your answer.

“6 less than” backwards means you should add 6.
6 + 42 = 48

“Three times as many” backwards means you divide by 3.
48/3 = 16

You can check your work by plugging it back into the original question.

16 green coffee mugs * 3 - 6 = 42 blue coffee mugs