The Mystery of the Missing Marbles: An Algebra Adventure

On a sunny afternoon at Rainbow Middle School, Maya and Leo stumbled upon a puzzling problem in the schoolyard. Their math teacher, Professor Puzzlesworth, saw an opportunity for a fun algebraic adventure!

• Maya: Oh no, Leo! My marble bag feels lighter than usual. I think some marbles are missing!
• Leo: Don’t worry, Maya. Let’s use our algebra skills to solve the mystery!
• Professor Puzzlesworth: Excellent idea, detectives! Let’s turn this into an algebraic expression. Maya, how many marbles did you have yesterday?
• Maya: I had x marbles yesterday.
• Professor Puzzlesworth: And how many did you lose?
• Maya: I lost 7 marbles during the marble race.
• Leo: And how many do you have now?
• Maya: I counted, and I have 15 marbles left.
• Professor Puzzlesworth: Perfect! Let’s write an equation: x - 7 = 15

Maya and Leo put on their thinking caps and solved the equation together.

Step 1: Add 7 to both sides to find x.
x - 7 + 7 = 15 + 7
Step 2: Simplify.
x = 22
So, Maya had 22 marbles yesterday!

• Leo: Hooray! We solved it! Algebra is like being a detective with numbers!
• Maya: Thanks, Leo and Professor! Now I know how to use equations to solve real-life mysteries.
• Professor Puzzlesworth: Well done, team! Remember, algebraic expressions and equations help us describe and solve all sorts of puzzles-just like this one!

Try Your Own!

Imagine you have y candies. You give 8 to your friend and now have 12 left. Can you write and solve the equation to find how many candies you started with?

And so, with a little algebra and a lot of teamwork, Maya and Leo cracked the case of the missing marbles. Who knows what mathematical mysteries they’ll solve next?