Algebra: Age Problem

Age problem is one of the most common worded problems in algebra. We have to clearly distinguish the tenses used for us to come up with a correct equation.

The problem above is an example of an age problem. We'll answer that as we go beyond in this discussion.

My steps in answering age problems are:

1.Read and understand the whole problem first.

We have to identify what are the tenses used (present, future or past) in the problem and identify what is being asked.

2.Assign variables.

To make the problems easy to manipulate, we have to assign variables out of it.

Based on the example:

3.Read the problem again and formulate equations.

We have to read the problem again but this time, we have to read it by sentence. And if possible, lets formulate an equation out of the sentence.

In the first sentence of the given example, we will come up to this equation.

In the second sentence, we can formulate this equation.

So our equations are:

4.Substitute the first equation to the second one.

So the new equation after substitution is..

5.Manipulate the new equation.

There are actually a lot of ways to answer age problems. But I find it more easy if I answer it this way. I hope you learn something :) Thanks for reading 😁.

And to make this interactive, I'll give you a little exam. Just comment your answers.

Have a great day ahead :D God Bless us all :)