SOLUTION: A father is four times older than his son. If you subtract 60 from the square of the son's age you get the fathers age. How old are they? Can you please help me out? Thanks so m

Algebra ->  Systems-of-equations -> SOLUTION: A father is four times older than his son. If you subtract 60 from the square of the son's age you get the fathers age. How old are they? Can you please help me out? Thanks so m      Log On


   

Question 754431: A father is four times older than his son. If you subtract 60 from the square of the son's age you get the fathers age. How old are they?
Can you please help me out? Thanks so much in advance:)
Can you also please show the steps it would really help me understand:)
Answer by rothauserc(4718) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A father is four times older than his son. If you subtract 60 from the square of the son's age you get the fathers age. How old are they?
let son's age be x, then father's age is 4x, also
4x = x^2 - 60 and
x^2 -4x -60 = 0
factor the polynomial
(x+6)*(x-10)=0
solutions for x are -6 and 10
we choose the value 10 for x since a person can not be negative years old :-)
so the son is 10 years old and the father is 4*10 or 40 years old