can you solve this equation by using simultaneous equations and can you write the method please?
Sarah and Louise have a combined age of 24. Six years ago Sarah was triple Louise's age. What is Sarah and Louise's ages now. Let Sarah be x and Louise be y.
thankyou
loooooooser
S+L=24
s-6=3L
Please could you write out the whole equation for me as I don't completely follow. Thanks.
on what
245265966336
To solve this equation using simultaneous equations, let's assign variables for Sarah and Louise's ages. Let x represent Sarah's age and y represent Louise's age.
According to the problem, Sarah and Louise have a combined age of 24. This can be expressed as:
x + y = 24
Six years ago, Sarah was triple Louise's age. This can be expressed as:
(x - 6) = 3(y - 6)
To solve these two simultaneous equations, we can either use the substitution method or the elimination method. Let's use the elimination method in this case:
Step 1: Multiply the second equation by 3 to eliminate the fraction:
3(x - 6) = 9(y - 6)
3x - 18 = 9y - 54
Step 2: Rearrange the equation to isolate one variable:
3x - 9y = -54 + 18
3x - 9y = -36
Step 3: Multiply the first equation by 3 to make the coefficient of x the same as in the second equation:
3(x + y) = 3 * 24
3x + 3y = 72
Step 4: Eliminate x by subtracting the equations:
(3x + 3y) - (3x - 9y) = 72 - (-36)
12y = 108
y = 108 / 12
y = 9
Step 5: Substitute the value of y back into one of the original equations to solve for x:
x + 9 = 24
x = 24 - 9
x = 15
Therefore, Sarah's current age (x) is 15 and Louise's current age (y) is 9.