Huilans age is three times Thomass age The sum of their ages

Huilan\'s age is three times Thomas\'s age. The sum of their ages is 56. What is Thomas\'s age?

Solution

Let Huilan\'s age be x and Thomas\'s age be y.

It is given that Huilan\'s age is three times the age of Thomas\'s so x = 3y.

It is also given that sum of their ages is 56. So

x + y = 56

Put x = 3y which gives 4y =56

Solving, we get y = 14 and x = 42.