SOLUTION: Michael is 3 times as old as Brandon. 18 years ago, Michael was 9 times as old as Brandon. how old is michael now

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Question 1048988: Michael is 3 times as old as Brandon. 18 years ago, Michael was 9 times as old as Brandon. how old is michael now

Found 3 solutions by jorel555, advanced_Learner, ikleyn:
Answer by jorel555(1290) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let b represent Brandon's age 18 years ago. Then Michael would be 9b. So
3(b+18)=9b+18
3b+54=9b+18
6b=36
b=6
Brandon was 6 18 years ago, so Michael was 54. Now they are 24 and 72, respectively. ☺☺☺☺

Answer by advanced_Learner(501) About Me  (Show Source):
Answer by ikleyn(52799) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
Michael is 3 times as old as Brandon. 18 years ago, Michael was 9 times as old as Brandon. How old is Michael now?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let B be Brandon's age now.
Then Michael's age now is 3B.

18 years ago, Michael was 3B-18 years old.
              Brandon was B-18 years old.

And the condition says

3B-18 = 9*(B-18).

Simplify and solve:

3B- 18 = 9B - 9*18,

9*18 - 18 = 9b - 6B,

144 = 6B,

B = 144%2F6 = 24.

Answer. Brandon is 24 years old now. Michael is 72 years old now.

There is a bunch of lessons on age word problems
    - Age problems and their solutions
    - A fresh formulation of a traditional age problem
    - Really intricate age word problem
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    - Age problem for the day of April, 1
    - OVERVIEW of lessons on age problems
in this site.

Read them and become an expert in solving age problems.

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It contains a lot of other word problems and many other interesting and useful things.