John is presently 10 years older than Fred Five years ago Jo

John is presently 10 years older than Fred. Five years ago John was three times as old as Fred. How old is each now?

Solution

Let john is x years old

and Fred is y years old

Then from the given information,

x= 10+ y .........(1)

x-5 = 3(y-5)

=> x-5 = 3y-15

=>x= 3y -10 ..........(2)

From 1 and 2, we have

10+ y .=  3y -10

=> 2y= 20

=> y= 10

Hence from 1,

x= 10+10 = 20

Therefore, John is 20 years old

and Fred is 10 years old.