Question

jamal's age is 3 more than 3 times Mike's age. Mike's age is 17 years less than Jamals agee. What is the sum of the ages of Mike and Jamal?

Answer 1

Jamal's age is 24

Mikes age is 7

so their ages together would equal 31

Answer 2

The sum of the ages of Mike and Jamal is 31

Explanation:

First we need to translate the questions into mathematical equation and then solve.

Let x be Jamal's age and y be Mike's age.

"Jamal's age is 3 more than 3 times Mike's age" can be written mathematically as;

x =3 + 3y ---------------------------------------------------------------(1)

"Mike's age is 17 years less than Jamal's age" can be written mathematically as ;

y = x - 17 -----------------------------------------------------------------(2)

Substitute equation (1) into equation (2)

y = 3 + 3y - 17

y = 3y - 14

subtract 3y from both-side of the equation

y - 3y = 3y - 3y - 14

-2y = -14

Divide both-side of the equation by -2

`(-2y)/(-2)` =
`(-14)/(-2)`

y = 7

Mike is 7 years old

Substitute y = 7 into equation (1)

x = 3 + 3y

= 3 + 3(7)

= 3+21

=24

Jamal is 24 years old

The sum of their ages is = x + y = 24 + 7 = 31

Therefore, The sum of the ages of Mike and Jamal is 31