Abag contains green marbles and blue marbles, 16 in total. The number of green marbles is 8 less than 2 times the number of blue marbles, How many green marbles are there?

1 Answer
Dec 10, 2016

Assign a variable for the number of blue marbles.

Explanation:

In this case, let's use y.

To find the number of green marbles, assign an expression following information from the question, which gives you;

#(2y-8)+y = 16#

Here, the expression #2y-8# will give you the total number of green marbles, hence you can just solve the equation;

#3y-8 = 16#
#16+8 = 3y#
#24 = 3y#
#y=8#

There are 8 blue and 8 green marbles.

Substitute 8 for y to find the green marbles;

#2(8)-8 = 8#