SOLUTION: Joel is twice as old as Kayla. In 5 years, the sum of their ages will be 55 years. Write an equation for the information given. What are the ages of the two people.

Question 1132725: Joel is twice as old as Kayla. In 5 years, the sum of their ages will be 55 years. Write an equation for the information given. What are the ages of the two people.
Found 3 solutions by solver91311, josmiceli, greenestamps:
Answer by solver91311(24713)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Let represent Kayla's age now. Then Joel's age now is , Kayla's age in 5 years will be , and Joel's age in 5 years will be . Since the sum of their ages will be 55 in 5 years:

Solve for and then calculate

John

My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it

Answer by josmiceli(19441)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let = Joel's age now
= Kayla's age now
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I think they want 1 equation with 1 unknown, so

and

Joel is 30
Kayla is 15
---------------------
check:

OK
Answer by greenestamps(13200)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Finding the answer using formal algebra is good practice; but this kind of problem can be solved mentally with a bit of simple arithmetic.

If the sum of their ages in 5 years will be 55, then the sum of their ages now is 45.

Then if Joel is twice as old as Kayla and the sum of their ages is 45, then Joel is 30 and Kayla is 15.
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