If a bag has 24 marbles and you give away 7, how many remain?

If a bag has 24 marbles and you give away 7, how many remain?

• A. 17
• B. 17.5
• C. 18
• D. 15

Answer: (A)

Subtracting to find what's left is the idea here. If you start with 24 marbles and take away 7, you get 24 minus 7, which equals 17. So 17 marbles remain. Since marbles are whole objects, a fractional amount like 17.5 isn’t possible in this context. If you had subtracted 6 you’d end up with 18, and subtracting 9 would give 15, which helps see why 17 is the correct result.

Subtracting to find what's left is the idea here. If you start with 24 marbles and take away 7, you get 24 minus 7, which equals 17. So 17 marbles remain. Since marbles are whole objects, a fractional amount like 17.5 isn’t possible in this context. If you had subtracted 6 you’d end up with 18, and subtracting 9 would give 15, which helps see why 17 is the correct result.