solution:
Let's begin by noting the ratio we need:
4 green : 3 yellow wax beans
So we know we will be dealing with "x" multiples of the numbers in this ratio. Since we are given the total number of beans, we can write an equation using "x" as the multiplier of these ratio numbers. Then we can solve the equation for our multiplier "x" to calculate the right ratio numbers for our given total number of beans:
4x + 3x = 56 (our equation using "x" multiplier)
7x = 56
x = 8 (our ratio multiplier)
Applying our ratio multiplier, we get our answers:
4x = 4(8) = 32 green beans
3x = 3(8) = 24 yellow wax beans
As a check, we can see that 32 and 24 do add up to our given total of 56 beans, so we are confident that our answers are correct.