# puzzling one for my 11 year old and myself [closed]

$$\frac{1}{4}$$ of the marbles in a box are blue. There are $$24$$ more red marbles than blue marbles in the box. The remaining $$32$$ marbles are yellow. How many red marbles are in the box?

## closed as off-topic by Chowzen, athin, xhienne, boboquack, Gareth McCaughan♦Oct 20 '18 at 0:01

This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:

• "This question is off-topic as it appears to be a mathematics problem, as opposed to a mathematical puzzle. For more info, see "Are math-textbook-style problems on topic?" on meta." – Chowzen, athin, xhienne, boboquack, Gareth McCaughan
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• It sounds like this is a textbook-style math problem and not a puzzle. Does this belong in math.stackexchange.com? – Hugh Oct 19 '18 at 22:56
• To be honest, I don't think that this can even be in Math.SE. I mean, this is like a math question for middle schoolers – Kevin L Oct 20 '18 at 4:32

Well, you can solve this with:

algebra! (cheer)

So,

let x equal the number of blue marbles.

The number of red marbles is

x+24

and the total number of marbles is

x+x+24+32, or 2x+56 marbles.

Since the number of blue marbles is 1/4th the total,

(2x+56)/4 = x

Algebra gives

2x+56 = 4x
56 = 2x
x = 28

Since

the number of red marbles is x+24, there are 52 red marbles in the box.

• sorry for posting a math problem rather that a puzzle wasn't clear on the difference though but thanks for solving it. it really was a mind buggler. plus it made me clear that it was not a problem for an 11year old who has not even ventured into algebra. thanks Excited Raichu. oh yeah can you recommed a site for stuff like these. – bob simple Oct 21 '18 at 19:15