SOLUTION: The digits of Michaels age are interchanged and 1 is added the answer is half of Michaels present age How old is Michael now? Have the answer as 52 but cannot understand how you

Question 990122: The digits of Michaels age are interchanged and 1 is added the answer is half of Michaels present age How old is Michael now?
Have the answer as 52 but cannot understand how you get to it
Answer by ankor@dixie-net.com(22740) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
let 10a+b = his age now
:
Not a straight forward problem, we have two unknowns and only one equation
We have to make use of the fact that the solutions have to be single digit integers.
The equation
The digits of Michael's age are interchanged and 1 is added the answer is half of Michael's present age
10b + a + 1 = .5(10a+b)
10b + a + 1 = 5a + .5b
10b - .5b + 1 = 5a - a
9.5b + 1 = 4a
4a = 9.5b + 1
Divide equation by 4
a = b +
this equation only has 1 integer solution
a = 5; b = 2

How old is Michael now? 52

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