Help with this 3 system equation word problem?

[monnysmith]

The number of blues was four less than the sum of whites and the greens. Also, the number of greens equaled the sum of the blues and the whites.

[Math Tutor]

blue = white + green - 4
green = blue + white


so
blue = white + (blue + white) - 4
blue - blue + 4 = 2*white
white=2

but we cannot find green and blue

[Math Tutor]

In the given problem we have a system of 2 equations and 3 unknown variables.

[HallsofIvy]

From
"blue = white + green - 4
green = blue + white "
we can replace "green" in the first equation by "blue+ white":
blue= white+ (blue+ white)- 4= blue+ 2white- 4
"blue" on each side cancels leaving
0= 2white- 4 Add 4 to each side to get 2white= 4
Divide both sides by 2 to get white= 2.

So the two original equations become
"blue= 2+ green- 4= green- 2" and
"green= blue+ 2"

Of course, "blue= green- 2" and "green= blue+ 2" say exactly the same thing so there are infinitely many solutions.

One thing we can say is that if blue= N then green= N+ 2 so any solution is of the form
white= 2
blue= N
green= N+ 2
where N can be any number.

(While "N" is typically used to represent an integer, nothing is said in this problem about "white", "blue", and "green" being integers so N could represent any number.)