Alas, The Pointless Things You Can Do With Marbles

Finn has a box containing only red marbles, green marbles, and blue marbles. He needs to select at least seventeen marbles to be guaranteed to be sure that at least one is green. Likewise, he needs to select at least eighteen marbles to be sure at least one is red. To be sure of getting at least one of each color, he must select twenty marbles.

How many marbles are in the bag?


The answer is 26.

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1 solution

Daniel Liu
Apr 8, 2014

Let the number of red marbles, green marbles, and blue marbles be r , g , b r, g, b respectively. From the first condition, we have that r + b = 16 r+b=16 . From the second condition, we have that g + b = 17 g+b=17 . From the last condition, we have that r + g = 19 r+g=19 . Adding the first two together and subtracting the third gives 2 b = 14 2b=14 , or b = 7 b=7 . Adding this to r + g = 19 r+g=19 gives r + g + b = 26 r+g+b=\boxed{26} .

Gosh dang it man, you write the awesomest solutions so I don't even have to! I don't know if I should be mad or happy! Anyways, great job!

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 2 months ago

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Good problem!

David Lee - 7 years, 1 month ago

Please explain how you formed the third equation.

Justin Wong - 7 years, 2 months ago

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the first two equations give you the combination total for red and blue, and green and blue. So, the final pair has to be Red and Green. Using worst case scenario, 20 marbles include all of Red and Green and one blue .So, the equation must be R+G=19.

Venture HI - 7 years, 2 months ago

This is just a Mathcounts question.

Alex Pan - 7 years, 2 months ago

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Yeah. Hey aren't you going to Nationals this year?

Pierson S. - 7 years, 2 months ago

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Yeah, are you?

Alex Pan - 7 years, 2 months ago

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@Alex Pan No, he isn't. He's a friend from school. I'm not, but I @mentioned you for my post here . I did horribly this year at States, but I'm in 7th so I've got another shot. Dude, congratulations! I consider myself a professional "analyzer" of MATHCOUNTS each year. So I have background checks on all competitors, I see what all of their strengths are, I compare their States scores, and this year I'm afraid Colin Tang has it in the bag. But dude, take my advice that I gave to @Daniel Liu ! If you do that, you'll be unstoppable. Good luck! :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 1 month ago

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@Finn Hulse Nice job at States! I'm sure you'll get in next year. Also, I agree; Colin is probably going to get at least top 4. I have no chance. What advice did you give to Daniel ?

Alex Pan - 7 years, 1 month ago

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@Alex Pan Did you read the "Good Luck to MATHCOUNTS National Competitors" note? It summarized everything you have to watch out for. So what place did you get in your state, what grade are you in, and what was your score? I'm not going to lie, I bombed States in VA. I got a 17. You might wonder why I'm so happy? Because out of all of the 7th graders, I still managed to place 11th, which means that next year, when I do score as well as I should have (at Regionals I got a 38), I'll kick butt. I meant to say "7th grade" not "7th place" in my earlier comment. Haha. :D

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 1 month ago

:) Simply awesome

Kartik Tyagi - 7 years ago

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