SOLUTION: Alex is three times as old as Aaron. If their age total 84 years, how old is Aaron?

Question 535162: Alex is three times as old as Aaron. If their age total 84 years, how old is Aaron?
Answer by Iluvidina(15) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
21
Their total age is 84
So you would add Alex and Aaron's ages to get the total of 84
You don't know either of their ages; you just know that Alex is 3 years older
So, you would use a variable to represent their ages
Aaron's age would be n and Alex's would be 3n because he is three years older
Your equation would be 84=3n+n
Then you would add 3n and n
84=4n
Then you would divide both sides by 4
So n=21
that is the last step because Aaron's age was represented by the variable
(if you were finding Alex's age, you would have to multiply 21 by 3, because Aaron's age is 21 and Alex is 3 years older)
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