Sam's age is five years more than twice Jessica's age. Together, the sum of their ages is 17. Let J = Jessica's age?
S=5+2J
S+J=17
s-2J=5
s+J=17
subtract first equation from second
3J=12
J=4
"Sam's age is five years more than twice Jessica's age."
So, Sam's age, which I will designate a "s" is 5 years more than twice Jessica's age, which I will designate as "j".
From this we can realize that twice Jessica's age (2j) plus 5 is equal to Sam's age. From this, we can get the equation:
s = 2j + 5
"Together, the sum of their ages is 17."
This one's pretty straightforward:
s + j = 17
So now we have the system of equations:
s = 2j + 5
s + j = 17
Since we know that s = 2j + 5, we can substitute 2j + 5 for s in the second equation:
s + j = 17
(2j + 5) + j = 17
By using algebra to solve for J in the equation above, you will arrive at the correct answer.
I don't get how i still get the answer
To solve this problem, let's assign variables to the given information.
Let's say J = Jessica's age.
According to the problem, Sam's age is five years more than twice Jessica's age. This means we can express Sam's age as (2J + 5).
The sum of their ages is given as 17. So we can create an equation:
J + (2J + 5) = 17
Now, let's solve this equation to find Jessica's age.
Combine like terms:
3J + 5 = 17
Subtract 5 from both sides:
3J = 12
Divide both sides by 3:
J = 4
Therefore, Jessica's age (J) is 4 years old.