Question

A mother is 3 times as old her son is now. Fourteen years ago, she was 10 times as old as he was then. how old is the son?

Answer 1

Let's start by using algebra to represent the given information.

Let the son's current age be "s" and the mother's current age be "m". We know from the problem that:

m = 3s (the mother is 3 times as old as her son is now)

and

m - 14 = 10(s - 14) (fourteen years ago, the mother was 10 times as old as her son was then)

Now we can solve for the son's age:

m - 14 = 10s - 140 (distribute the 10)

m = 10s - 126 (add 14 to both sides)

3s = 10s - 126 (substitute m = 3s)

7s = 126

s = 18

Therefore, the son is currently 18 years old. To check this answer, we can use the first equation to find the mother's current age:

m = 3s = 3(18) = 54

So the mother is currently 54 years old, and 14 years ago the son was 4 years old and the mother was 40 years old, which is 10 times as old as the son.

Explanation: