Question

Red and gray bricks were used to build a decorative wall. The number of red bricks number of gray bricks was . There were 175 bricks used in all. How many red bricks were used?

Answer 1

You have not provided the ratio of red bricks to gray bricks.

Therefore, I'll just explain how to solve this problem in general with an assumption and you can apply this same method to the specific problem you have.

Assume:

The number of red bricks was 5 and the number of grey bricks were 2.

Explanation:

This mean for every 5 red bricks we use 2 grey bricks

Thus for every
`2+5=7` bricks there are 5 red and 2 grey bricks

This gives us:
`(5)/(7)` red and
`(2)/(7)` grey bricks

Therefore, with 175 bricks used in all, we have:

175 ×
`(5)/(7)` =
`(875)/(7)` = 125 red bricks and

175 ×
`(2)/(7)` =
`(350)/(7)` = 50 grey bricks

Answer (with given assumption):

125 red bricks were used