A man is 42 years old and his son is 12 years old. In how many years will the age of the son be half the age of the man at that time? Explain!
12 + n = .5(42+n)
12 + n = 21 + .5 n
.5 n = 9
n = 18
Other way to solve this question is:
Assume the years be x then
Son's age=12, Father's age=42.
After x years son's age will be half of father's age i.e. father's age will be twice of son's age
So
2(12+x)= (42+x)
24+2x = 42+x
2x-x = 42-24
x = 18
So after 18 years son's age will be half of father's age
To check:
12+18=30
and 42+18= 60
and hence son's age will be half the age of his father.
To answer this question, we need to determine the number of years it will take for the son's age to be half of the man's age at that time.
Let's start by setting up an equation. Let x represent the number of years in the future. In x years from now, the man's age will be 42 + x, and the son's age will be 12 + x.
According to the problem, in x years, the son's age will be half of the man's age. This can be represented as:
(12 + x) = 1/2 * (42 + x)
To solve this equation, we can simplify it by multiplying both sides by 2 to get rid of the fraction:
2 * (12 + x) = 42 + x
Now, let's distribute the 2 to both terms in the parentheses:
24 + 2x = 42 + x
Next, let's isolate the x term by subtracting x from both sides:
24 + 2x - x = 42 + x - x
Simplifying further, we get:
24 + x = 42
Now, we can solve for x by subtracting 24 from both sides:
x = 42 - 24
x = 18
Therefore, it will take 18 years for the son's age to be half of the man's age.