Nikole I.

asked • 11/09/15

Determine the age of the youngest sibling.

The ages of three siblings combined is 27. The oldest is twice the age of the youngest. The middle child is three years older than the youngest. Determine the age of the youngest sibling.

Justin D.

Hi Nikole!
 
First thing we're going to need to do is write an equation and set it equal to 27, so:
 
27=(2x)+(x+3)+x
 
x = youngest child
2x = oldest child (twice as old as the youngest, so 2x)
 
x+3= Age of the middle child because they're 3 years older than the youngest.
 
so now, we do some algebra and solve for X.
 
27=(2x)+(x+3)+x
 
First we subtract the 3 from both sides, and we get:
 
24=(2x)+(x)+(x)
 
Combine our like terms, all the x's so we get
 
24=4x
 
Divide both sides by 4 and we get
 
x=6 (age of youngest child)
 
 
We can check our work by plugging 6 back into our equation, and seeing if it equals 27.
 
27=2(6)+(6)+3+6
27= 12+6+3+6
27=27.
 
I hope I've helped!
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11/09/15

1 Expert Answer

By:

Sirisha R. answered • 11/09/15

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Say the ages are x,y and z
According to the given data
x+y+z=27  ---(1)
z=2x   ----(2)
y=x+3 ----(3)
 
substitute (2) and (3) in (1)
 
x+(x+3)+(2x) = 27
4x+3=27
Subtrating 3 on both sides we have
4x=24
 
dividing with 4 on both sides
x=6
 
Age of the youngest sibling is 6. Substitute the value in (2) and (3) to get age of other siblings
 
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