Carcass wrote:
Jack is now 14 years older than Bill. If in 10 years Jack will be twice as old as Bill, how old will Jack be in 5 years?
(A) 9
(B) 19
(C) 21
(D) 23
(E) 33
Here's a 2-variable solution:
PRESENTLY
Jack is now 14 years older than Bill.Let B = Bill's
present age
Let J = Jack's
present age
So, we can write:
J - B = 1410 YEARS IN THE FUTURE
In 10 years, the both of them are
10 years older. So...
Let B
+ 10 = Bill's age in 10 years
So, J
+ 10 = Jack's age in 10 years
In 10 years Jack will be twice as old as BillSo, to make their
future ages EQUAL, we'll need to double Bill's age.
That is: (Jack's age in 10 years) = 2(Bill's age in 10 years)
So, we get: J
+ 10 = 2(B
+ 10)
Simplify: J + 10 = 2B + 20
Rearrange to get:
J - 2B = 10So, we now have 2 equations with 2 variables:
J - B = 14J - 2B = 10 Subtract the bottom equation from the top equation to get: B = 4
So, Bill is PRESENTLY 4 years old.
This means that Jack is PRESENTLY 18 years old
How old will Jack be in 5 years?Jack will be
23 years old
Answer: D
Aside: Looks like the 1-variable solution is probably faster. Cheers,
Brent