Gabrielle is 8 years older than Mikhail. The sum of their ages is 68. What is Mikhail's age?

Answer 1

Let's use the variable m to represent Mikhail's age. Since Gabrielle is 8 years older than Mikhail, we write the following expression to represent Gabrielle's age: m + 8

The problem tells us that the sum of their ages is 68. Therefore we can write the following equation for the sum:

Mikhail's age + Gabrielle's age = 68

Then, using our variable expressions:

m + m + 8 = 68

Now use combining like terms and inverse operations to solve the equation:

m + m + 8 = 68

2m + 8 = 68

2m = 68 - 8

2m = 60

2m/2 = 60/2

m = 30 Mikhail is 30 years old

Gabrielle is 8 years older or 30 + 8 = 38 years old

The sum of their ages is 30 + 38 or 68 years.