Question

There are 27 red or blue marbles in the bag. The number of red marbles is 5 less than 3 times of the blue marbles. How many red marbles are in the bag? How many blue marbles are in the bag?

Answer 1

27=3x-5+x
27+5=4x-5+5
4x=32
4x/4=32/4
x=8
There are 8 blue marbles and 19 red marbles.

Answer 2

Let

x--------> The number of red marbles

y--------> The number of blue marbles

we know that

`x+y=27\\ x=27-y`

equation
`1`

`x=3y-5`

equation
`2`

equate equation
`1` and equation
`2`

`27-y=3y-5\\ 3y+y=27+5\\ 4y=32\\ y=8`

`x=3*8-5\\ x=19`

therefore

the answer is

The number of red marbles is
`19`

The number of blue marbles is
`8`