Question

A mother is five times as old as her daughter. In 6 years, the mother will be three times as old as her daughter. How old is she now?

Answer 1

Explination:

So to find the answer to this problem

m(mother) = x

d(daughter) = y

If In 6 years the mother will be as 3 times as old as the daughter. We can use the process of elimination. Lets start of with the number 20. So the mother is 60(for now). Then in 6 years the mother will be 66. 66/3 = 22. This means the daughter was 22 - 6 = 16. But the mother has to be 5 times as old right now. SO this wouldnt make sense. If you reduced this number by 10's continuelly then you would see that the only other 10's form of this that is divisible is 36. So 30 + 6 is 36. 36/3 = 12. This means the daughter was 6.. So the mother was 30. The daughter was 6.

Hope this helped!

Answer 2

Explanation:

m = 5d

m-6+d-6 = 60 substitute for m:

5d-6+d-6 = 60

6d-12 = 60

6d = 72

d = 12 The daughter is 12 and the mother is 5(12) = 60

hope this helps