Question

Sara's age is three times Emily's age, and their combined ages are 28. How old is Emily?

a) 7
b) 8
c) 9
d) 10

Answer 1

Emily's age is determined by setting up and solving a simple linear equation based on the information given, resulting in Emily being 7 years old.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question revolves around solving a basic linear equation in order to find Emily's age. To tackle this problem, we can set up equations based on the information provided. Let's assume Emily's age is E years. According to the problem, Sara's age is three times Emily's age, which can be represented as 3E. Together, their ages add up to 28 years, so we can write the equation E + 3E = 28.

This simplifies to 4E = 28. To solve for E, divide both sides of the equation by 4, leading to E = 28 / 4, which further simplifies to E = 7. Therefore, Emily is 7 years old, which corresponds to option (a).