Ethan is 40 years old his son is 12 years old. How many years was Ethan 5 times older then his son
Let that number of years be x
Ethan --- 40+x
son ------ 12+x
40+x = 5(12+x)
40+x = 60 + 5x
-4x = 20
x = -5
it happened 5 years ago
check: 5 yrs ago, Ethan was 35, son was 7
and 35 is 5 times 7
To find out how many years Ethan was 5 times older than his son, we'll set up an equation. Let's call the number of years we're looking for "x."
We know that Ethan is currently 40 years old, and his son is currently 12 years old. So, we need to find the value of x that makes Ethan's age 5 times greater than his son's age.
Mathematically, we can express this as:
40 + x = 5 * (12 + x)
Now, let's solve this equation step by step:
1. Distribute the 5 to both terms inside the parentheses:
40 + x = 60 + 5x
2. Subtract 5x from both sides of the equation to get all the x terms on the same side:
40 - 5x + x = 60
3. Simplify:
40 - 4x = 60
4. Subtract 40 from both sides:
-4x = 20
5. Divide both sides by -4 to solve for x:
x = -20/4
x = -5
So, Ethan was 5 times older than his son 5 years ago.