A bin at the local supermarket holds 50 peppers of two sizes and two colors.
Twenty-two peppers are large and red.
Twelve peppers are small.
Twenty-six peppers are green.

How many of the peppers are small and green?


Solution to the Problem:

There are 10 peppers that are small and green.

I used the following table to help solve the problem.

    Red     Green  
  Large     22    
  Small      

Since there are 22 peppers that are large and red, I placed the 22 in the upper left corner of the table.

Since there are 50 peppers and 12 of them are small, that means that there are 38 large peppers.
    So, there must be 16 peppers that are large and green (top right corner of table).

Since there are 50 peppers and 26 of them are green, that means that there are 24 red peppers.
    So, there must be 2 peppers that are small and red (bottom left corner of table).

Therefore, there must be 10 peppers that are small and green:

    Red     Green     Totals  
  Large     22     16     38  
  Small     2     10     12  
  Totals     24     26     50  



Correctly solved by:

1. Colin (Yowie) Bowey Beechworth, Victoria, Australia
2. Ritwik Chaudhuri Santiniketan, West Bengal, India
3. Veena Mg Bangalore, Karnataka, India
4. Kelly Stubblefield Mobile, Alabama
5. Ivy Joseph Pune, Maharashtra, India
6. Sapna Dominic Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
7. Dr. Hari Kishan D.N. College,
Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India
7. Davit Banana Istanbul, Turkey
8. Sara Gagler Central High School,
Grand Junction, Colorado