Question

1 year ago, Clot is one-third as old as his 4 times old as Soup. Another 1 year from now, the sum of their ages is 21. Find the present age.

Answer 1

Answer: Let's use algebra to solve this problem.

Let C be Clot's present age and S be Soup's present age. Then, according to the problem:

One year ago, Clot was C-1 years old, and four times Soup's age at that time was 4(S-1).

Clot's age one year ago was one-third of four times Soup's age, so we have:

C - 1 = (1/3) * 4(S - 1)

Simplifying this equation, we get:

C - 1 = (4/3)(S - 1)

C = (4/3)(S - 1) + 1

One year from now, Clot will be C + 1 years old, and Soup will be S + 1 years old. The sum of their ages will be 21, so we have:

(C + 1) + (S + 1) = 21

C + S + 2 = 21

C + S = 19

Now we have two equations with two unknowns. We can substitute the expression for C from the first equation into the second equation to get an equation in terms of S:

(4/3)(S - 1) + 1 + S = 19

Simplifying and solving for S, we get:

S = 6

Substituting S = 6 into the equation C + S = 19, we get:

C + 6 = 19

C = 13

Therefore, Clot's present age is 13 and Soup's present age is 6.

Explanation: