The first sentence is:
My brother is 7 years younger than ('my age'). It mentions 'my age' second, so:
Let this bar be 'my age':
And since the brother BRO is 7 years younger, we use a shorter bar for 'BRO's age'.
Now notice that "my age" can be partitioned off into 'bro's age' and 7 more,
like this:
Now we look at the next sentence:
Twice my age plus 3 times his age is 99.
So we make 2 long bars for 'my age' and 3 short bars for 'bro's age':
Now let's partition off the bars for 'my age' as we did above:
Now we count the BRO's and there are 5 of them.
We count the 7's and there are 2 of them, so the equation is
5 BRO's + 2 7's = 99
or 5B + 2x7 = 99
5B + 14 = 99
Subtract 14 from both sides: 5B = 85
Divide both sides by 5: B = 17
BRO is 7 years younger, so 'your age' is 17 + 7 or 24.
Edwin
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my brother is 7 years younger than me. Twice my age plus 3 times his age is 99.
What are our ages? Plz use the singapore model method.
I have the answer but can not understand how to show the working out using the bar model.
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This problem can be solved MENTALLY, without using any equations,
based on common sense ONLY.
Mentally, reduce your age by 7 years, to the age of your brother.
Then "twice my age plus 3 times his age" will become 99 - 2*7 = 85.
Now this "twice my age plus 3 times his age" is the same as 5 times the brother age.
Hence, the brother age is 85/5 = 17 years, and your real age is 7 years more, or 17+7 = 24 years.
ANSWER. You are 24 years old. Your brother is 17 years old.
Solved mentally, in extremely simple way.
I believe that this solution is accessible for a 4-th grade student.