Mrs Roberts is 3 times as old as her son. The sum of their ages is 48 years. How old was Mrs. Roberts when her son was born?
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Sandy -- are you in 4th grade or 6th grade math?
6th grade
x + 3x = 48
4x = 48
x = 12
Mrs. Roberts is 36. Her son is 12.
How old was she when he was born?
To find out how old Mrs. Roberts was when her son was born, we first need to determine their current ages. Let's assume the son's age is represented by x.
It is given that Mrs. Roberts is 3 times as old as her son, so her age can be represented as 3x.
The sum of their ages is 48 years, so we can write the equation:
x + 3x = 48
Combining like terms, we have:
4x = 48
Next, we solve for x by dividing both sides of the equation by 4:
x = 48 / 4
x = 12
Therefore, the son's current age is 12 years.
Now that we know the son's age, we can determine Mrs. Roberts' age. Mrs. Roberts is 3 times as old as her son, so her current age is 3 * 12 = 36 years.
To find out how old Mrs. Roberts was when her son was born, we can subtract the son's age (0 years) from Mrs. Roberts' age (36 years):
36 - 0 = 36
Therefore, Mrs. Roberts was 36 years old when her son was born.