Steve is 24 years older than his son Jed.

Question

Steve's age now is 8 years less than three times his son's age. How old is Steve now?

Answer 1

Hi!  You have 2 pieces of information here that you can use to solve this problem.

 

You want to translate the word problem into something you can solve.

 

The  first sentence:  Steve(S) is (=) 24 older than (+) his son Jed (J)  or S = 24 + J

 

The second sentence:  Steve (S) is (=) 8 years less (- 8) than three times his son's age (3J) or S = 3J - 8

 

Now that you have two equations, you can substitute  3J - 8 = 24 + J, solve for J (Jed) and then you can  use that to figure out Steve's age!