SOLUTION: Lea is 6 years older than Phil. John is 5 years older than Lea. How old is Sue if the total age of everyone equals 41?

Question 188483: Lea is 6 years older than Phil. John is 5 years older than Lea. How old is Sue if the total age of everyone equals 41?
Found 2 solutions by Mathtut, solver91311:
Answer by Mathtut(3670) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
how did Sue get in the picture....that would be 4 unknowns and not enough info....please resubmit.....thanks Mathtut
Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

I think you left out a small piece of information because with the information given you can only create 1 equation in 2 variables. However, if we constrain the value of the variables to the positive integers, you can develop either 7 or 9 solutions depending on whether or not you consider 0 (as in a newborn infant) to be a valid "age" in the sense of this question.

Let x be John's age.

Then x - 5 is Lea's age and x - 5 - 6 = x - 11 is Phil's age.

Sue's age, given that there are no other clues, is y

And the sum is 41, so:

In order for x to be a positive integer, 57 - y must be evenly divisible by 3. In order for x - 11 to be a positive integer, x must be greater than or equal to 11. Hence, and the demonstration is left as an exercise for the student, the possibilities are:

Sue:

John:

Lea:

Phil:

John

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