Question 1183266

a man is six years older than his wife.six years ago the ratio of their ages wa 7:6 find their present ages
<pre>If you want to torture yourself, you can follow that woman's formation of this problem.

Correct way to do this is:
Let the wife's age be W
Then man's is W + 6
Now, since the man's older, it's obvious that his age would represent the larger part of the ratio, hence, 7 for him.
We then get: {{{matrix(2,3, (W + 6 - 6)/(W - 6), "=", 7/6, W/(W - 6), "=", 7/6)}}}
6W = 7(W - 6) ------ Cross-multiplying
6W = 7W - 42
6W - 7W = - 42
- W = - 42
Wife's age, or {{{highlight_green(matrix(1,5, W, "=", (- 42)/(- 1), "=", 42))}}}

Do you think you can find the man's age?</pre>