Eric is twice as old as his brother Lucas. If 4 is subtracted from Eric's age and 4 is added to Lucas's age, their ages will be equal. What are the boys' ages now?
4 answers
Ms Sue please help me!
16 and 8.
16 and 8
Yes, that's correct!
Let's use algebra to check the answer:
- Let's call Eric's age "E" and Lucas's age "L".
- We're given that E = 2L, since Eric is twice as old as Lucas.
- We're also given that if we subtract 4 from Eric's age and add 4 to Lucas's age, they'll be equal: (E-4) = (L+4).
- We can substitute the first equation into the second equation: (2L-4) = (L+4).
- Simplifying that equation, we get L = 8.
- We can then use the first equation to find E: E = 2L = 2(8) = 16.
So we get the same answer of 16 and 8!
Let's use algebra to check the answer:
- Let's call Eric's age "E" and Lucas's age "L".
- We're given that E = 2L, since Eric is twice as old as Lucas.
- We're also given that if we subtract 4 from Eric's age and add 4 to Lucas's age, they'll be equal: (E-4) = (L+4).
- We can substitute the first equation into the second equation: (2L-4) = (L+4).
- Simplifying that equation, we get L = 8.
- We can then use the first equation to find E: E = 2L = 2(8) = 16.
So we get the same answer of 16 and 8!
1 answer