document.write( "Question 113476: Mary is ten years younger than twice Susan's age. Five years from now, Mary will be eight years older than Susan's age at the time. How old are Mary and Susan? \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #82542 by solver91311(24713)\"\" \"About 
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Let's say Mary is m years old, and Susan is s years old. So twice Susan's age is 2s. Ten years younger than that is 2s - 10. Since that is Mary's age now, we can write:\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "\"m+=+2s+-+10\"\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Five years from now, Mary will be m + 5 years old, and Susan will be s + 5 years old. And the problem tells us that Mary will be eight years older than Susan then. So we can also write:\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "\"m+%2B+5=s%2B5%2B8\" or
\n" ); document.write( "\"m%2B5=s%2B13\"\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Since we know that \"m=2s-10\" we can substitute this expression in the second equation.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "\"%282s-10%29%2B5=s%2B13\"\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Now solve for s:
\n" ); document.write( "\"2s-5=s%2B13\" Collect terms
\n" ); document.write( "\"2s-s=13%2B5\" Add -s and +5 to both sides
\n" ); document.write( "\"s=18\"\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "So Susan is 18. Let's put this value back into the first equation.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "\"m=2%2818%29-10\"
\n" ); document.write( "\"m=26\"\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "And Mary is 26.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Last step -- Very Important. Check your answer.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "26 = 2 * 18 - 10, 26 = 26 Check and
\n" ); document.write( "26 + 5 = 18 + 13, 31 = 31 And both answers check.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Hope that helps,
\n" ); document.write( "John
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