SOLUTION: The Roman poet Virgil was born in 70 b.c. How old was he on his birthday in 42 b.c.?

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Question 10907: The Roman poet Virgil was born in 70 b.c. How old was he on his birthday in 42 b.c.?
Answer by kinupanda(9) About Me  (Show Source):
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The years "B.C." run backwards to our modern years; thus the year 70 B.C. was followed by the year 69 B.C., and so on. This is is similar to the negative portion of the number line. Given this, we can say the year 70 B.C. is the year -70.
Thus, to find Virgil's age in any given year, we do what we do for our own birthdays: take the current year and subtract the year of birth. In the year -42, Virgil would be -42-%28-70%29 years old.
Subtracting -70 is the same as adding 70; thus, his age is -42%2B70 = 70-42 = 28 years.