SOLUTION: a man is six years older than his wife.six years ago the ratio of their ages wa 7:6 find their present ages

Question 1183266: a man is six years older than his wife.six years ago the ratio of their ages wa 7:6 find their present ages
Found 3 solutions by MathLover1, MathTherapy, greenestamps:
Answer by MathLover1(20850)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

let man's age be and wife's age
if a man is six years older than his wife, we have
.....eq.1

if six years ago the ratio of their ages was , we have

.........cross multiply

..........solve for

........eq.2

from eq.1 and eq.2 we have
........solve for

go to
.....eq.1, substitute

their present ages:
man is years old
his wife is years old

Answer by MathTherapy(10553)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

a man is six years older than his wife.six years ago the ratio of their ages wa 7:6 find their present ages

If you want to torture yourself, you can follow that woman's formation of this problem. Correct way to do this is: Let the wife's age be W Then man's is W + 6 Now, since the man's older, it's obvious that his age would represent the larger part of the ratio, hence, 7 for him. We then get: 6W = 7(W - 6) ------ Cross-multiplying 6W = 7W - 42 6W - 7W = - 42 - W = - 42 Wife's age, or Do you think you can find the man's age?

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

Given that the ratio of their ages 6 years ago was 7:6, I would solve the problem like this:

Let their ages 6 years ago be 7x and 6x. (That is a very common way to start on a problem like this where a ratio is given.)

The difference between their ages 6 years ago was 7x-6x=x.

But the difference between their ages is 6 years. So x=6, and their ages 6 years ago were 7x=42 and 6x=36.

So now, 6 years later, their ages are 42+6=48 and 36+6=42.

ANSWERS: The man is now 48; his wife is 42.

RELATED QUESTIONS
a man is six years older than his wife.six years ago the ratio of their ages wa 7:6 find... (answered by ankor@dixie-net.com)
the sum of ages a man and his wife is 15 years. the man is 15 years older than his wife.... (answered by richwmiller,Alan3354)
A brother is five years older than his sister. Four(4) years ago,the ratio of their ages (answered by richwmiller)
A brother is 3 years older than his sister, five years ago, the ratio of their ages were... (answered by ikleyn,josgarithmetic,greenestamps)
A woman is now 4 times older than her daughter. Six years ago, the product of their ages... (answered by Merciful)
A man is three times as old as his son and six years ago the product of their age was... (answered by ptaylor)
mr.jones is 30 years older than his son. six years ago he was 7 times as old as his son... (answered by lwsshak3)
If a man is 5 times older than his son, 4 years ago the product of their ages was 52,... (answered by macston,Alan3354)
The present ages of a husband and wife are in the ratio of seven to six, and five years... (answered by ankor@dixie-net.com)