If we divide 56 by 4 we get 14. Why by4? So that one number is 3 times the other So he had 14 balls that went into the green bags and 42 (56-14) that went into the red bags. We could just answer the question and say 14 but I think they want to know how many in each green bag. 14 and 42 don't work because they are not the same number of balls. What number is a common factor? 7 is, We could have 2 green bags and split the 14 balls into 2 groups of 7 and with the remaining 42 - put them into 6 red bags of 7 each. And so the answer to your question is: 7 ball in each bag = 2 bags are green, and 6 bags are red 14 balls + 42 balls = 56 bouncy balls