Question 275242
tom is 4 times as old as todd. in 5 years toms age will be 1 year less than 3 times as old as todd. how old is tom?

Let x be Todd's age and y Tom's. Then we have:

1.) y = 4*x 

In 5 years their ages will be x+5 and y+5 so we have:

2.) y+5 = 3*(x+5)-1

We can substitute 4x for y in 2.) and solve for x:

4x+5 = 3*(x+5)-1

Once you have x you can calculate y = 4*x.