My question is: There are 50 marbles in a box which has a mixture of white, red and blue marbles. There were originally 20 white marbles and an equal number of red and blue marbles. Jack removes a number of marbles equal to double the difference between the number of white marbles and the number of blue marbles. How many marbles are left in the box? Your thoughts:
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20 of 50 marbles are white so there are 50 - 20 = 30 red and blue marbles. The number of red marbles and blue marbles is the same, so there are 30 / 2 = 15 of each color. The difference between the number of white marbles and blue marbles is 20 - 15 = 5. Double the difference is 5 * 2 = 10 marbles. 10 marbles are removed to leave 50 - 10 = 40 marbles. The final answer: 40.
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