Question 1121307
let x equal the son's age now.


the father's age now is therefore equal to 4x.


i think you mean that, in 4 years time, he will be 3 times as old as his son.


in 4 years, the father will be 4x + 4 years old.


in 4 years, the son will be x + 4 years old.


in 4 years the father will be 3 times as old as the son leads to the equation:


4x + 4 = 3 * (x + 4)


simplify this to get 4x + 4 = 3x + 12


subtract 3x from both sides of this equation and subtract 4 from both sides of this equation to get:


x = 8


that's his son's age today.


he is 4 * 8 = 32 years old today.


in 4 years, he will be 36 years old and his son will be 12 years old.


36 = 3 * 12 means that he will be 3 times as old as his son in 4 years.


today he's 32 and his son is 8.


32 = 4 * 8


4 years from now, he will be 36 and his son will be 12.


36 = 3 * 12.


your solution is that their he is now 32 and his son is now 8.