Question 1113857: Anthony is 3 times older than Marry. In 3 years he will be only twice as old as her.
Find their ages
Found 3 solutions by josgarithmetic, greenestamps, Alan3354:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617)   (Show Source):
Answer by greenestamps(13200)  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The answer from the other tutor of course doesn't make sense, because age problems require answers in whole numbers.
However, with the way the problem is worded, that is the right answer to the question.
What the tutor only hints at but does not explain is that the statement of the problem is faulty.
Specifically, the phrase "3 times older than Marry" does NOT mean -- as most people think it does -- the same as "3 times as old as Marry". "3 times older than Marry" literally means as old as Marry, and then 3 more times that -- i.e., "3 times OLDER THAN Marry" means "4 times AS OLD AS Marry".
With that grammatically correct interpretation of the problem, you get the nonsensical answer that Marry is 1.5 years old and Anthony is 6.
The INTENDED statement of the problem was that Anthony is 3 times as old as Marry; then the problem has a reasonable solution.
a = 3m (Anthony is 3 times as old as Marry)
a+3 = 2(m+3) (Anthony's age in 3 years will be 2 times Marry's age in 3 years)
3m+3 = 2m+6 (substitution)
m = 3
a = 3m = 9
Marry is 3 and Anthony is 9
Answer by Alan3354(69443)  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! The problem is, some of the people that write the problems don't know what they're talking about.
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1 time older = a 100% increase = 2x as old, etc.
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PS there is no "3 times younger" since 1 time younger = zero.
Same for 3 times smaller, 10 times closer, etc.
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If the stated problem is faulty, it's not up to us or others to try to figure out what the author might have meant.
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