Final answer:
To determine how many years ago Ms. Ford was exactly twice as old as Ms. Lincoln, set up an equation using their ages and solve for x.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine how many years ago Ms. Ford was exactly twice as old as Ms. Lincoln, we need to set up an equation using their ages. Let's call the number of years ago 'x'.
Ms. Ford's current age is 48, so her age x years ago was 48 - x.
Ms. Lincoln's current age is 35, so her age x years ago was 35 - x.
According to the problem, Ms. Ford was exactly twice as old as Ms. Lincoln x years ago, so we can set up the equation: 48 - x = 2(35 - x).
Solving this equation will give us the value of x, which represents the number of years ago Ms. Ford was exactly twice as old as Ms. Lincoln.