SOLUTION: Miguel is 8 years older than his brother Juan. Five years from now, he will be twice as old as Juan. How old are the boys now?

Question 229963: Miguel is 8 years older than his brother Juan. Five years from now, he will be twice as old as Juan. How old are the boys now?
Answer by drj(1380) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Miguel is 8 years older than his brother Juan. Five years from now, he will be twice as old as Juan. How old are the boys now?

Step 1. Let x be the age of Juan

Step 2. Let x+8 be the age of Miguel since he is 8 years older than Juan.

Step 3. Let x+5 be the age of Juan five years from now.

Step 4. Let x+8+5=x+13 be the age of Miguel five years from now

Step 5. Then x+13=2(x+5) since five years from now Miguel will be twice as old as Juan.

Step 6. Solving x+13=2(x+5) yields the following steps

Subtract 10 from both sides of the equation

Subtract x from both sides of the equation

and .

Now five years from now Miguel will be 16 and Juan will be 8 which is twice as old as Juan and this is a true statement.

Step 7. ANSWER: Juan is 3 years old and Miguel is 11 years old.

I hope the above steps were helpful.

For FREE Step-By-Step videos in Introduction to Algebra, please visit http://www.FreedomUniversity.TV/courses/IntroAlgebra and for Trigonometry visit http://www.FreedomUniversity.TV/courses/Trigonometry.

And good luck in your studies!

Respectfully,
Dr J
http://www.FreedomUniversity.TV

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