The sum of John's age and twice of his son's age is 56. In 8 years time, the son's age will be half of john's age. Find there present ages.

Question

Right now I wrote down an equation x+2y=56 and not quite sure what to do next.

Answer 1

OK. That's the first sentence covered in x+2y=56 .

In 8 years time, the son's age will be half of john's age.

If x is John's age now, then his age in 8 years is (x+8), and his son's will be (y+8).

So the next thing is to make a second equation from that sentence, using (x+8) and (y+8) for the ages.

Answer 2

x=20 and y=18