Christian is 3 times as old as Marie. Marie is 12 years younger than Christian. How old is Christian?
Makes no sense. Where did 2c=36 come from?
See second post.
Thank you! Appreciate your help. I needed something that is easy to understand and explain to a 5th grader.
Let c be Christian, and m be Marie. Then:
c=3m and
m=c-12
So:
3(c-12)=c
3c-36=c
2c=36
c=18
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To determine Christian's age, we can use algebraic equations.
Let's say Christian's age is represented by 'C' and Marie's age is represented by 'M'.
We know that Christian is 3 times as old as Marie, so we can write the equation:
C = 3M
We also know that Marie is 12 years younger than Christian, which gives us another equation:
M = C - 12
We can substitute the value of C from the first equation into the second equation:
M = (3M) - 12
Now, we can solve for M:
M - 3M = -12
-2M = -12
M = -12 / -2
M = 6
So, Marie is 6 years old.
Now, we can substitute M into the first equation to find C:
C = 3(6)
C = 18
Therefore, Christian is 18 years old.