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Sam and Harry are family. Sam is currently five times Harry's age. Sam's age is also 10 more than three times Harry's age. The following system of equations models this scenario:

x = 5y
x = 10 + 3y

What are their current ages?

User Mike GH
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1 Answer

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Answer: y = 5

Step-by-step explanation: We'll put Harry's name as y to match the equation below. Without looking at the written equations we can find the same thing from the words: Sam is 5 times y's (Harry's) age. 5y. He is also 10 + (more) than 3 times y's (Harry's) age. 10 + 3y. Since these are two different ways to show the same persons age, we can make them equal to each other

5y=10+3y. We first need y only on one side so we will subtract 3y from both.

5y - 3y and 10 + 3y- 3y. This leaves us with 2y = 10. We then divide by 2 to have y by itself. 2y/2 and 10/2. Our answer from this is y = 5.

User Alexcamostyle
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