Six years hence a man’s age will be three times the age of his son and three years ago he was nine times as old as his son. Find their present ages.

Matching exercise

Match the items on the right to the items on the left.

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

STEP 4

Let the present age of man be ‘a’ and present age of son be b.

Given, Six years hence a man’s age will be three times the age of his son and three years ago he was nine times as old as his son. ⇒ a + 6 = 3(b + 6)

⇒ a = 3b + 12 ------ (1)

Also, three years ago he was nine times as old as his son

⇒ a – 3 = 9(b – 3)

⇒ a = 9b – 24 ----- (2)

Equating eq1 and eq2

⇒ 3b + 12 = 9b – 24

⇒ b = 6

Thus, a = 3b + 12 = 30

Hence age of man is 30 yrs and age of son is 6 yrs.