SOLUTION: Western State College is 18 years older than Southern State.Western is also 2 1/2 times as old as Southern. How old is each? Choices for Southern State's age: 12,14,18

Question 98812This question is from textbook Algebra:Structure and Method
: Western State College is 18 years older than Southern State.Western is also 2 1/2 times as old as Southern. How old is each?
Choices for Southern State's age: 12,14,18 This question is from textbook Algebra:Structure and Method

Answer by doukungfoo(195) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
First thing is to set up some variables
So western state college's age will be w
and southern state's age will be s
From the given information we can write these equations:
w = s + 18 and w = 2.5s
Now if s + 18 equals w
and 2.5s equals w then we know that
2.5s = s + 18
Now we can solve for s
first subtract s from both sides of the equal sign like this
2.5s - s = s - s + 18
1.5s = 18
now divide both sides by 1.5
1.5s/1.5 = 18/1.5
s = 18/1.5
s = 12
now that we have a value for s we can use that to solve for w so
w = s + 18
w = 12 + 18
w = 30

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