MHB Vatha & Chris Ages: Solve to Find Out How Old They Are Now

[historywept]

Q: The sum of the present ages of Vatha and Chris is 36. In 4 years time, the sum of their ages will equal twice Vatha's present age. How old are they now?A: Vatha:22, Chris: 14 (from the back of the textbook, only I'm not sure how to get here)I'm a little stuck with this one. If you could please help me with it, and how to solve problems like this, I'd be very grateful.

 

[HOI]

Q: The sum of the present ages of Vatha and Chris is 36. In 4 years time, the sum of their ages will equal twice Vatha's present age. How old are they now?

Denote their present ages by "V" and "C" respectively. The sum of their present ages is V+ C= 36. In 4 years time Vatha's age will be V+ 4 and Chris's age will be C+ 4. The sum of their ages then will be (V+ 4)+ (C+ 4)= V+ C+ 8. And that will be "twice Vatha's present age: V+ C+ 8= 2V. We already know that V+ C= 36 so V+ C+ 8= 36+ 8= 44= 2V.

A: Vatha:22, Chris: 14 (from the back of the textbook, only I'm not sure how to get here)I'm a little stuck with this one. If you could please help me with it, and how to solve problems like this, I'd be very grateful.