Question

María has three children. There is a two years age difference between each child. The total ages of all three children is 36 years. Rosa is the oldest child. How old is Rosa? Let R= the age of rosa.

Answer 1

R-2 is age of the second child
R-4 is age of third child
R-2+R-4+R=36
3R= 36+6=42
R=14

Answer 2

The ages of the children are:

R, R-2 and R-4.

Together they are R + R-2 + R-4 = 36. This is an equation we can solve.

3R - 6 = 36 => 3R = 42 => R = 14

So the ages are 10, 12 and 14