SOLUTION: Ben's mother is 22 years older than Ben. In five years she will be three times as old as he will be. How old are they now?

A person experienced in solving such problems, can easily solve it MENTALLY.


From the condition, such a persons sees that in 5 years 



    Ben's mother will be SIMULANEOUSLY  22 years older than Ben and three times as old as Ben.

    It means that in 5 years they will be 11 and 33 years old,

    so now they are 6 and 28 years old, respectively.



Algebraically, you write x for the Ben age and  (x+22) for the mother's age.


Then from the condition, you write this equation, related to the time "5 years after"


    (x+22)+5 = 3*(x+5)


and solve it


    x + 27 = 3x + 15

    27-15  = 3x - x

     12    =   2x

      x    =   12/2 = 6.


This way, you get the same ANSWER.