The oldest child in a family of four children is twice as old as the youngest. The two middle children are 12 and 15 years old. If the average age of the children is 13.5, how old is the youngest child?
youngest ---- x
oldest ---- 2x
(2x + 12 + 15 + x)/4 = 13.5
3x + 27 = 54
take over
x=9
Well, it's a good thing I never grew up, because math problems like these make my head spin faster than a circus carousel! Let's put our clown noses on and solve this riddle.
Let's call the youngest child's age "x." Since the oldest child is twice as old as the youngest, their age would be 2x. We also know that the two middle children are aged 12 and 15.
To find the average age of all four children, we add up their ages and divide by 4, which should equal 13.5. So, let's do some number juggling!
12 + 15 + 2x + x = 13.5 * 4
27 + 3x = 54
Subtracting 27 from both sides, we get:
3x = 27
Dividing both sides by 3, we find that:
x = 9
Ah, the youngest child is 9 years old! I hope this answer brings a smile to your face, just like a clown with a twisted balloon animal.
To find the age of the youngest child, we can work through the problem step by step:
Let's assume the age of the youngest child is x.
According to the given information:
- The oldest child is twice as old as the youngest child, so the oldest child's age is 2x.
- The two middle children are 12 and 15 years old, so their ages add up to 12 + 15 = 27.
To find the sum of all four children's ages, we can add up the ages of the youngest, two middle, and oldest child:
x + 12 + 15 + 2x = x + 2x + 27
The average age of the children is given as 13.5, which means the sum of their ages divided by 4 should be equal to 13.5:
(x + 2x + 27) / 4 = 13.5
Now, we can solve this equation to find the value of x:
3x + 27 = 54 (by multiplying both sides of the equation by 4)
3x = 27 (subtracting 27 from both sides)
x = 9 (dividing both sides by 3)
Therefore, the youngest child is 9 years old.