How old is Chase now?

Question

Chase is 8 years older than Leah. In 8 years the sum of their ages will be 52. How old is Chase now?



Answer 1

Ooh, I love these kind of problems.

First, assign a variable for one fo the unkown ages. L = Leah's age.

Since Chase is 8 years older, Chase = L+8

In 8 years they will both be 8 years older than now, so in 8 years Leah = L+8, and Chase = L+8+8 or L+16

The sum of their ages in 8 years = 52 so we can write the equation: L+8 + L+16 = 52

Combine like terms to simplify: 2L+ 24 = 52

Use inverse operations to find L, Subtract 24 on both sides to get: 2L = 28

Divid both sides by 2 to get: L = 14 So Leah is 14

To find Chase's age, add 8: 14 + 8 = 22. Chase is 22 years old.