SOLUTION: If agnes is three times as old and joseph and their combined ages is 64, how old is agnes

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Question 711069: If agnes is three times as old and joseph and their combined ages is 64, how old is agnes
Answer by tutor_paul(519) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The key to this problem is translating the words into equations. Let's take it one phrase at a time. "agnes is three times as old and joseph."
Let A=Agnes' Age
Let J=Joseph's Age
You can represent the above words as:
A=3J
Now let's take the second phrase: "their combined ages is 64."
You can represent these words as:
A%2BJ=64
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Now you have 2 equations and 2 unknown variables. Anytime you have as many equations as unknowns, you can solve the problem!
To do so, Substitute the expression for A in the first equation above into the second equation:
3J%2BJ=64
Solve for J:
4J=64
highlight%28J=16%29
To find A, substitute the value for J into the first equation, and solve for A. I will leave that part to you.
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Good Luck,
tutor_paul@yahoo.com