SOLUTION: John is two years older than James, and Matt is half John's age, the sum of their age is 23, how old is James?

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Question 982919: John is two years older than James, and Matt is half John's age, the sum of their age is 23, how old is James?
Answer by Edwin McCravy(20059) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Instead of doing your problem for you, I will do one exactly
like it.  You do yours the same way, using this as a model.

John is three years older than James, and Matt is one-third John's age, the sum
of their age is 25, how old are each of the boys?
John is three years older than James, 
Let James' age be x
Then John's age is x+3

and Matt is one-third John's age, 
So Matt's age is 1%2F3(x+3)

the sum of their ages is 25, 
x + (x+3) + 1%2F3(x+3) = 25
x + x + 3 + 1%2F3(x+3) = 25

   2x + 3 + 1%2F3(x+3) = 25

Multiply through by 3

           6x + 9 + 1(x+3) = 75
            6x + 9 + x + 3 = 75
                   7x + 12 = 75
                        7x = 63
                         x = 9

So James' age = x = 9
John's age = x+3 = 9+3 = 12
Matt's age  1%2F3(x+3) = 1%2F3{9+3) = 1%2F3(12) = 4    

Edwin