Question 1119940:  Bhim is 15 years older than his wife,  35 years older than his son,  37 years older than his daughter.  bhim and his wife had been married for 5 years before the son was born. If their combined age added up to 167, how old was bhim's wife when they got married. 
 
 Found 2 solutions by  Theo, ikleyn: Answer by Theo(13342)      (Show Source): 
You can  put this solution on YOUR website!  
let b = bhim's age today. 
let w = bhim's wife's age today. 
let s = bhim's son's age today. 
let d = bhim's daughter's age today.
 
 
the sum of their age today is 167.
 
 
b + w + s + d = 167.
 
 
b = w + 15 
b = s + 35 
b = d + 37
 
 
solve for w,s,d to get:
 
 
w = b - 15 
s = b - 35 
d = b - 37
 
 
the equation of b + w + s + d = 167 becomes:
 
 
b + b - 15 + b - 35 + b = 37 = 167
 
 
combine like terms to get:
 
 
4b - 87 = 167
 
 
add 87 to both sides of this equation to get:
 
 
4b = 254
 
 
solve for b to get b = 254 / 4 = 63.5
 
 
bhim is 63.5 today. 
bhim's wife is 63.5 - 15 = 48.5 today. 
bhim's son is 63.5 - 35 = 28.5 today. 
bhim's daughter is 63.5 - 37 = 26.5 today.
 
 
the sum of their ages is 63.5 + 48.5 + 28.5 + 26.5 = 167.
 
 
bhim was married 5 years before his son was born.
 
 
his son was born 28.5 years ago.
 
 
add 5 to that to get bhim was married 33.5 years ago.
 
 
33.5 years ago, bhim was 63.5 - 33.5 = 30.
 
 
his wife was 48.5 - 33.5 = 15.
 
 
that's your solution.
 
 
bhim's wife was 15 when she married him.
 
 
 
 Answer by ikleyn(52903)      (Show Source): 
You can  put this solution on YOUR website! . 
After reading the condition, it is not clear to me: whose combined age is 167 ?
 
 
Combined age of the four participants ?
 
 
Or Bhim and his wife only ?
 
 
If after reading the condition the reader has such questions, it means that the problem allows different interpretations -  
and, therefore, is not a Math problem at all.
 
 
 
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