There are two red jars of marbles and one blue jar of marbles. There are 37 marbles in total. The difference between the number of marbles in a red jar and the number of marbles in a blue jar is 5.

Question

the same color jars have the same amount of marbles in them. Find the number of marbles in each type of jar.

Answer 1

Hi,

The problem tells us that there three jars, and that two of those jars hold the same amount of red marbles. The total amount of marbles between these three jars is 37.

2r+b=37

We are also told that the there are 5 more marbles in the red jar than in the blue jar:

r-b=5

We now have two equations and two unknowns, therefore we can solve the problem.

2r+b=37

+

r-b=5

Cross out the b, and add 37 to 5 to get:

3r=42

r=42/3

r=14

Now that we know there are 14 red marbles in each jar, we can find the number of blue marbles.

14-b=5

b=9

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

2r + b = 37

r - b = 5

2r = 42

r = 21

b = ?