Question

A boy is now one third as old as his mother. What will be the age of the boy after $12$ years if mother’s present age is $x$ ?

Answer 1

Hint: Here we have been given a relation between the age of a boy and his mother and we have to find the boy's age after $12$ year such that mother’s age is given as $x$ . Firstly as we have been given the mother’s present age we will write the boy’s present age using it. Then we have been asked the age of the boy after $12$ years so we will add it to the present age of the boy and get our desired answer.

Complete step-by-step answer:
It is given that the mother's present age is $x$ .
It is given to us that presently the boy is one-third as old as his mother.
So,
Mother’s present age $=x$
Boy’s present age $=$ one third of the mother’s age
Boy’s present age $=\dfrac{x}{3}$…..$\left( 1 \right)$
Now we have to find the age of the boy after $12$ years,
So on adding $12$ in the equation (1) we get,
The age of boy $=\dfrac{x}{3}+12$
Hence the boy's age after $12$ years is $\dfrac{x}{3}+12$ .
So, the correct answer is “ $\dfrac{x}{3}+12$”.

Note: In this type of questions make sure that the variable given in the question is used throughout the solution. Try not to add another variable as the calculation may get complicated. Be familiar with the terms like one-third, half, quarter so that you don’t write the value given wrong. Forming equations and then equating them according to the given question is the only way to solve this type of problem and for that most important thing is to read the question carefully.. As the age of mother is already given we don’t have to let it.