Question 1164331
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For tutor @ikleyn...<br>
You show 3 times that the father is 52 instead of 42 -- I assume that was a typo<br>
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For the student....<br>
If your mental math is good, you can use the same path to the answer as shown by tutor @ikleyn without the formal algebra.<br>
(1) When the father is 3 times as old as Mick, the difference in their ages will be twice Mick's age (the difference between 3 times a number and the number itself is 2 times the number).
(2) The difference between their ages is 28 years; since the difference in their ages is twice Mick's age, Mick's age is 28/2 = 14.
(3) And that makes his father's age 14*3 = 42 (or 14+28 = 42).<br>