Question

Maggie is four times as old as her cousin Samuel. In five years, she will be six years less than three times his age. How old is Samuel now?

Answer 1

To solve this problem, Maggie's age (m) is represented as four times Samuel's age (s). Through substitution and simplification, Samuel's current age is determined to be 4 years old.

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve this problem, let's first represent Maggie's age as 'm' and Samuel's age as 's'.

From the problem, we know that m = 4s.

Next, we know that in five years, Maggie will be six years less than three times Samuel's age. So we can form the equation (m + 5) = 3(s + 5) - 6.

Substituting the value of m from the first equation, we can solve for s: 4s + 5 = 3s + 15 - 6.

Finally, simplifying the equation will give us s = 4.

Therefore, Samuel is currently 4 years old.