Question 1185802: Nate and Bob are 25 years old together. 5 years ago, Nate was 4 times older than Bob. How old are they now?
Found 3 solutions by Alan3354, greenestamps, josgarithmetic:
Answer by Alan3354(69443)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Nate and Bob are 25 years old together.
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So they are each 25 years old?
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5 years ago, Nate was 4 times older than Bob.
Is Nate 4 times older? or 4 times as old?
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How old are they now?
IDK
Answer by greenestamps(13200)  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Unfortunately, some people who write math problems don't now how to speak English....
(1) "Nate and Bob are 25 years old together" is very poor English; it means that each of them is 25 years old. But that would make the problem nonsensical.
Undoubtedly the intended information is that the sum of their ages is 25.
(2) Apparently very few people know the difference between "4 times older than" and "4 times as old as"; in sloppy everyday English, they are nearly always used to mean the same thing. But "4 times older than" means as old as, PLUS 4 TIMES MORE as old, which therefore means 5 times AS OLD.
It's like where a 400% increase means the new value is the old 100%, plus 400% more -- so the new value is 500% of the old value.
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So in both of the sentences of your post which give information to be used in the problem, we don't know what the information is.
Re-post, using correct and precise language.
If -- as is definitely possible -- you have shown the problem exactly as it was given to you, then we can only say we're sorry; neither we nor you can solve the problem if we don't know what the problem is.
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617)  (Show Source):
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