document.write( "Question 1172962: Mr. Jones is thirty four years older than his daughter Samantha. In five years, he will be three times older than she is. How old is Sandra now? \n" ); document.write( "

Algebra.Com's Answer #798101 by greenestamps(13200) $\"\"$ $\"About$

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\n" ); document.write( "The statement of the problem is faulty; as shown, the problem has no solution in whole numbers because of the grammatically incorrect usage of the phrase \"three times OLDER THAN\".

\n" ); document.write( "If one person's age is x and a second person is three times AS OLD AS the first, then the second person's age is clearly 3x; that makes the difference between their ages 2x.

\n" ); document.write( "But if one person's age is x and a second person is three times OLDER THAN the first, then the DIFFERENCE between their ages is three times the age of the first; that makes the age of the second person 4x.

\n" ); document.write( "The statement of the problem therefore says that in 5 years the DIFFERENCE between the ages of Mr. Jones and his daughter will be 3x. But the difference between their ages is 34 years; 3x=34 does no give a whole number answer.

\n" ); document.write( "So the problem as stated has no sensible solution.
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