Question 1096049
<br>(1) choose one of the boys to have his age be your variable, x.  Since the problem asks for Tim's age, it will probably be easiest to choose him.  So<br>
let x = Tim's age<br>
(2) get expressions for John's and Michael's ages in terms of x, using the given information.<br>
John is 8 years older than Tim:  x+8 = John's age<br>
Tim is 2 years younger than Michael -- i.e., Michael is 2 years older than Tim:  x+2 = Michael's age<br>
(3) write and solve the equation that says the sum of the ages is 63:
{{{x + (x+8) + (x+2) = 63}}}<br>
I'll let you finish from there....<br>
However, you will find that the ages are not whole numbers, which is not possible -- so some of the information in the problem as you show it is not right.