the sum of to kim and tony's ages is 42, the difference in their ages is 4 years. what are the ages of kim and tony?

19 and 23

My unconventional method was to divide 42 by 2 to get 21. I went from there.

You could also solve these equations.

x + y = 42
x - y = 4

It’s really hard

To find the ages of Kim and Tony, we can set up two equations based on the information given. Let's represent Kim's age as K, and Tony's age as T.

The sum of their ages is 42, so we have the equation:
K + T = 42

The difference in their ages is 4 years, which means one is 4 years older than the other. We have two cases to consider:
1. Tony is older than Kim: in this case, Tony's age is K + 4.
2. Kim is older than Tony: in this case, Kim's age is T + 4.

Now we can set up the second equation based on the given information:
Tony is older than Kim, so Tony's age (K + 4) minus Kim's age (T) is equal to 4:
(K + 4) - T = 4

Let's solve this system of equations using substitution.

Substitute (K + 4) from the second equation into the first equation:
K + T = 42
K + 4 + T = 42

Combine like terms:
2K + 4 = 42

Subtract 4 from both sides:
2K = 38

Divide both sides by 2:
K = 19

Now plug this value back into the first equation to find T:
19 + T = 42
T = 42 - 19
T = 23

Therefore, Kim is 19 years old, and Tony is 23 years old.