Question 1108720
<br>
Tutor boreal misread the problem and came up with a nonsensical answer.<br>
Tutor teachmath showed the right answer but without showing any work, so it is of little use.<br>
Tutor ikleyn, as usual, provides a good solution method, but in the end she gives Linda's age instead of Ryan's.<br>
I would approach the problem a bit differently, like this:<br>
If their combined ages is now 113, then 9 years ago it was 113-18 = 95.
At that time, Ryan was 4 times as old as Linda.  So
{{{x+4x = 95}}}
{{{5x = 95}}}
{{{x = 19}}}<br>
9 years ago, Linda was 19 and Ryan was 4*19 = 76; now Linda is 28 and Ryan is 85.