Question 224030
If the age of the son is {{{x}}} and the man is four times the son's age, then the man's age is {{{4x}}}.
Since we know the sum of their ages is 50, we can write the following expression:
{{{x+4x=50}}}.
To solve this we first combine the {{{x}}} terms on the left hand side.
{{{5x=50}}}
We then need to isolate the {{{x}}} term by dividing both sides of the equation by 5 to obtain:
{{{x=10}}}
Recall that {{{x}}} was defined as the age of the son, so the son's age is 10. We can check this by determining that the man's age was 4 times the son's, so the man was 40 years old. The sum of 40 and 10 is 50, so we are correct.