Meredith picked 4 times as many green peppers as red peppers. If she picked a total of 20 peppers, how many green peppers did she pick?

Question

Fourth grade math problem

Answer 1

Hello, Kristin.

 

In order to answer this problem you will need to know the number of green peppers picked and the number of red peppers picked.  Let's call "G" the number of green peppers picked, and let's call "R" the number of red peppers picked.  From the statement of the problem, we know that 

 

                                                                 G = 4R  (1)

 

 

because the number of green peppers is four times the number of red peppers.  We also know from the statement of the problem that

 

                                                                 G + R = 20   (2)

 

because Meredith picked 20 peppers.  Because of equation (1), we can substitute "4R" for "G" in equation (2) to get

 

                                                                  4R + R = 20

or

                                                                   5R = 20    or    R = 4

 

Substituting "R = 4" into equation (1), we get 

 

                                                                   G = 4 x 4 = 16