SOLUTION: a man is six years older than his wife.six years ago the ratio of their ages wa 7:6 find their present ages

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Question 1183266: a man is six years older than his wife.six years ago the ratio of their ages wa 7:6 find their present ages
Found 3 solutions by MathLover1, MathTherapy, greenestamps:
Answer by MathLover1(20850) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

let man's age be x and wife's age y
if a man is six years older than his wife, we have
x=y%2B6.....eq.1

if six years ago the ratio of their ages was 7%3A6+, we have

%28x-6%29%2F%28y-6%29=7%2F6 .........cross multiply
6%28x-6%29=7%28y-6%29
6x-36=7y-42..........solve for x
6x=7y-42%2B36
6x=7y-6
x=7y%2F6-1........eq.2

from eq.1 and eq.2 we have
+y%2B6=7y%2F6-1........solve for y
+1%2B6=7y%2F6-y
+7=7y%2F6-6y%2F6
+7=y%2F6
+7%2A6=y
y=42

go to
x=y%2B6.....eq.1, substitute y

x=42%2B6
x=48


their present ages:
man is 48 years old
his wife is 42 years old


Answer by MathTherapy(10552) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

a man is six years older than his wife.six years ago the ratio of their ages wa 7:6 find their present ages
If you want to torture yourself, you can follow that woman's formation of this problem.

Correct way to do this is:
Let the wife's age be W
Then man's is W + 6
Now, since the man's older, it's obvious that his age would represent the larger part of the ratio, hence, 7 for him.
We then get: 
6W = 7(W - 6) ------ Cross-multiplying
6W = 7W - 42
6W - 7W = - 42
- W = - 42
Wife's age, or 

Do you think you can find the man's age?

Answer by greenestamps(13200) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!


Given that the ratio of their ages 6 years ago was 7:6, I would solve the problem like this:

Let their ages 6 years ago be 7x and 6x. (That is a very common way to start on a problem like this where a ratio is given.)

The difference between their ages 6 years ago was 7x-6x=x.

But the difference between their ages is 6 years. So x=6, and their ages 6 years ago were 7x=42 and 6x=36.

So now, 6 years later, their ages are 42+6=48 and 36+6=42.

ANSWERS: The man is now 48; his wife is 42.