Question 1096899: Combined Steve, Matthew and Anthony's age sum to seventy-one. In three years, Anthony will be twice as old as Matthew. When Matthew is half Anthony's age, Steve will be five. I tried to work it out and put Steve at age two rather than five because of the three years. Which would make Matthew thirty-three and Anthony sixty-six which doesn't add to seventy-one. Any help or explanation is very appreciated! Thanks!
Found 2 solutions by greenestamps, josgarithmetic:
Answer by greenestamps(13200)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The problem says Anthony will be twice as old as Matthew 3 years from now. So 3 years from now Matthew will be half as old as Anthony.
The problem also says that when Matthew is half as old as Anthony, Steve will be 5. So that must be 3 years from now.
Since the sum of their current ages is 71, the sum of their ages 3 years from now will be 80.
We know that 3 years from now Steve will be 5, so the sum of Matthew's and Anthony's ages 3 years from now will be 75. And if at that time Anthony will be twice as old as Matthew, it means Anthony will be 50 and Matthew will be 25.
So the ages 3 years from now will be 5, 25, and 50; the current ages are 2, 22, and 47.
Check: 47+22+2 = 71
Answer by josgarithmetic(39620)  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Combined Steve, Matthew and Anthony's age sum to seventy-one. In three years, Anthony will be twice as old as Matthew. When Matthew is half Anthony's age, Steve will be five. I tried to work it out and put ...
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s, Steve
m, Matthew
a, Anthony
x, unknown amount of time passage in years
If you write a system of equations literally following the description, this can be that system, four equations in four variables.
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A somewhat simplified system:
which seems to indicate that  , according to second and third equations.
... if no mistakes so far, everything else should fall into place.
Notice this part of the description:
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In three years, Anthony will be twice as old as Matthew. When Matthew is half Anthony's age, Steve will be five.
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You may not need four equations in four unknowns - just three...
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