Carcass wrote:
Jim is now 15 years older than Ted. 18 years ago, Jim was twice Ted’s age. Jim is now how many years old?
A) 33
B) 35
C) 47
D) 48
E) 51
Let J = Jim's PRESENT age
So, J - 15 = Ted's PRESENT age (since Ted is 15 years younger than Jim)
We can also write the following:
J - 18 = Jim's age 18 YEARS AGO
(J - 15) - 18 = Ted's age 18 YEARS AGO
Simplify to get:
J - 33 = Ted's age 18 YEARS AGO
18 years ago, Jim was twice Ted’s age.We can write: (Jim's age 18 YEARS AGO) = 2(Ted's age 18 YEARS AGO)
Substitute to get:
J - 18 = 2(
J - 33)
Expand: J - 18 = 2J - 66
Subtract J from both sides: -18 = J - 66
Add 66 to both sides to get:
48 = JSince J = Jim's PRESENT age, the correct answer here is D