Algebriac Translataions

by **Guest** Wed Jul 16, 2008 4:24 am

Hi
This is question no. 6 from Alegraic Translations problem set from Word Translations....
Ross is 3 times as old as Sam and Same is 3 years older than Tina. 2 years from now, Tina will drink from the Fountain of youth, which will make her half as old as she was. If after drinking from the foutnain tina is 16 years old, how old is ross right now?

in the explaination it says for this particular statement : tina will drink from the Fountain of Youth, which will make her half as old as she was...please explain why does it say t+2/2 = 16

thanks

by **rfernandez** Sat Jul 26, 2008 4:10 am

I think the past tense "was" is throwing you off. Consider it this way: drinking from the Fountain of Youth reduces one's age by half.

With that understanding, if t is Tina's age now, then t+2 will be her age in 2 years. And if she drinks from the Fountain at that point in time (2 years from now), her age will be (t+2)/2.