<PRE><B>Question 1185802</B>
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Unfortunately, some people who write math problems don&#39;t now how to speak English....&lt;br&gt;
(1) &quot;Nate and Bob are 25 years old together&quot; is very poor English; it means that each of them is 25 years old.  But that would make the problem nonsensical.&lt;br&gt;
Undoubtedly the intended information is that the sum of their ages is 25.&lt;br&gt;
(2) Apparently very few people know the difference between &quot;4 times older than&quot; and &quot;4 times as old as&quot;; in sloppy everyday English, they are nearly always used to mean the same thing.  But &quot;4 times older than&quot; means as old as, PLUS 4 TIMES MORE as old, which therefore means 5 times AS OLD.&lt;br&gt;
It&#39;s like where a 400% increase means the new value is the old 100%, plus 400% more -- so the new value is 500% of the old value.&lt;br&gt;
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So in both of the sentences of your post which give information to be used in the problem, we don&#39;t know what the information is.&lt;br&gt;
Re-post, using correct and precise language.&lt;br&gt;
If -- as is definitely possible -- you have shown the problem exactly as it was given to you, then we can only say we&#39;re sorry; neither we nor you can solve the problem if we don&#39;t know what the problem is.&lt;br&gt;
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