Non Routine Problem
Question:
Al's father is 45. He is 15 years older than twice Al's
age. How old is Al?
How to solve the problem?
We can begin by assigning a variable to what we're
asked to find.
Here this is Al's age, so let Al's age = x.
We also know from the information given in the
problem that 45 is 15 more than twice Al's age.
How can we translate this from words into
mathematical symbols? What is twice Al's age?
Translate words to mathematics symbol.
Well, Al's age is x, so twice Al's age is 2x, and 15 more
than twice Al's age is 15 + 2x. That equals 45, right?
Now we have an equation in terms of one variable that
we can solvefor x: 45 = 15 + 2x.
The solution
Statement Mathematics solving
original statement of the 45 = 15 + 2x
problem:
subtract 15 from each side: 30 = 2x
divide both sides by 2: 15 = x
Since x is Al's age and x = 15, this means that Al is 15
years old.
Check your answer
It's always a good idea to check our answer:
Twice Al's age is 2 x 15: 30
15 more than 30 is 15 + 30: 45
This should be the age of Al's father, and it is.