Rodney is three times as old as his sister. Ayear ago he was four times as old. How old are rodney and his sister now?
R=3S
R-1=4(S-1)
Does that help?
3 x 3 = 9
2 x 4 = 8
To find out how old Rodney and his sister are now, let's assign some variables.
Let's say Rodney's current age is R, and his sister's current age is S.
From the given information, we know that Rodney is three times as old as his sister, so we can write the equation:
R = 3S ---(Equation 1)
We also know that a year ago, Rodney was four times as old as his sister. So, we need to consider their ages one year ago.
Rodney's age one year ago would be (R - 1), and his sister's age one year ago would be (S - 1).
Using this information, we can write another equation:
R - 1 = 4(S - 1) ---(Equation 2)
Now we have a system of two equations (Equation 1 and Equation 2). We can solve this system to find the values of R and S.
Let's substitute the value of R from Equation 1 into Equation 2:
3S - 1 = 4(S - 1)
Now, simplify and solve for S:
3S - 1 = 4S - 4
3S - 4S = -4 + 1
-S = -3
S = 3
Now that we have found S, we can substitute it back into Equation 1 to find R:
R = 3S
R = 3(3)
R = 9
So, Rodney is currently 9 years old, and his sister is currently 3 years old.