Age of the ship?

[Salt]

The combined age of a ship and its boiler is 48 years.

The ship is twice as old as
the boiler was
when the ship was half as old as
the boiler will be
when the boiler is three times as old as
the ship was
when the ship was three times as old as
the boiler.

How old is the ship?

What is the mathematical equation that will solve this problem?

got it from here (http://users.characterlink.net/The-Cookie-Jar/math_jokes_01.html)

Can anyone confirm the answer? :confused:

my answer is
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boiler is 3/5 ship age

[regor60]

Not sure of the protocol to replying, but I get the ship is 30, boiler is 18. As follows:
S+B=48
s=2(b-x)
s-x=1/2(b+y)
b+y=3(s-w)
s-w=3(b-w)

Solved using some webbased matrix calc program

[Salt]

heay, so I'm right. :biggrin: