Question

Elliot is 2 times as old as Tanya. 10 years ago, Elliot was 4 times as old as Tanya​. How old is Elliot now?

Answer 1

Answer:

Step-by-step explanation:

To solve this, we are going to make an age table:

                       Age Now                 Age 10 years ago

Tanya

Elliot

Filling the in the Age Now column comes from the first sentence. If Elliot is 2 times Tanya's age and we don't know Tanya's age, then Tanya's age is x and Elliot's age is 2x:

            Age Now                Age 10 years ago

Tanya         x

Elliot         2x

Filling in the Age 10 years ago column simply requires that we take their ages in the Age Now column and subtract 10 from each age:

         Age Now                Age 10 years ago

Tanya     x                              x - 10

Elliot      2x                           2x - 10

Since the question is How old is Elliot now based on the fact that 10 years ago....blah, blah, blah, we are using the ages in the 10 years ago column to write our equation. It says:

10 years ago, Elliot was 4 times as old as Tanya. Translated into mathspeak:

2x - 10 = 4(x - 10) and

2x - 10 = 4x - 40 and

-2x = -30 so

x = 15. That means that Elliot is 30 and Tanya is 15