description

Question

Mrs Jenkins has five children. Her youngest child is two years old. The next three children have consecutive ages. Her oldest child is two years older than the second oldest. If the combined age of her children in 41, what are the ages of mrs Jenkins children?

Answer 1

Convert each statement in the problem to an equation:

 

Let A, B, C, D, and E be the ages of children in ascending order. So A is the age of the youngest child, B is the age of the second youngest child, and so on.  We are told that the youngest child is two years old, so we can write the equation

 

A = 2.

 

We are next told that the next three children have consecutive ages.  In equations, this is:

 

C = B + 1

D = C + 1

 

"Her oldest child is two years older than the second oldest" is translated as:

 

E = D + 2

 

Finally, we are given that the combined age of all the children is 41:

 

A + B + C + D + E = 41

 

So we now have a system of five equations with five unknown quantities.  Solving the system (by substitution, elimination, etc.) will give you the ages A, B, C, D, E of the children.