Word Problems About Age Help

Example 1:

Jill is twice as old as Jim and Jim is three years older than Ken. The sum of their ages is 61. What are their ages?

Three quantities are being compared, so find one age and relate the other two ages to it. Ken’s age is being compared to Jim’s and Jim’s to Jill’s. The easiest route to take is to let x represent Jim’s age. We can write Jill’s age in terms of Jim’s age; 2 x . Jim is three years older than Ken, so Ken is three years younger than Jim. This makes Ken’s age as x – 3.

Jim’s age is 16. Jill’s age is 2 x = 2(16) = 32. Ken’s age is x – 3 = 16 – 3 = 13.

Example 2:

Karen is four years older than Robert, and Jerri is half as old as Robert. The sum of their ages is 44. Find Karen’s, Robert’s, and Jerri’s ages.

Both Karen’s and Jerri’s ages are being compared to Robert’s age, so let x represent Robert’s age. Karen is four years older than Robert, so Karen’s age is x + 4. Jerri is half as old as Robert, so Jerri’s age is .

Robert’s age is 16; Karen’s age is x + 4 = 16 + 4 = 20; and Jerri’s,