Question

Aleeka is now 12 years old and Raveena is 24 years old. How many years ago was Raveena three times as old as Aleeka?

Answer 1

Hint: To solve these types of sums, we will represent the problem into a linear equation. The linear equation is an equation consisting of constant and variable. By solving the linear equation, we may get the value of the constant. Now, the number of linear equations depends on the number of variables.
In this given problem we can express the problem into a linear equation of one variable.

Complete step by step answer:
It is given that the age of Aleeka is 12 years and the age of Raveena is 24 years.
We have to find out how many years ago Raveena was three times as old as Aleeka.
Let us consider, $x$ years ago Raveena was three times as old as Aleeka.
Then,
$x$ years before, the age of Aleeka is $12-x$ years.
$x$ years before, the age of Raveena is $24-x$ years.
Since, Raveena was three times as old as Aleeka.
According to the problem we get,
$24-x=3(12-x)$
Let us simplify the above, we get,
$24-x=36-3x$
Let us simplify again we get,
$3x-x=36-24$
Let us simplify again we get,
$x=6$

Hence we have found that 6 years ago Raveena was three times as old as Aleeka
Let us cross check whether our answer is correct or not.
Substitute the value of $x$ with 6, we get
6 years before, the age of Aleeka is $12-6$ years=$6$ years.
Similarly,
6 years before, the age of Raveena is $24-6$ years = $18$ years.
So, the age of Raveena is three times the age of Aleeka.

Therefore, 6 years ago Raveena was three times as old as Aleeka.

Note:
Like this age problem to find the year or to find the age of the person or to find the ratio of age between two persons first we have to consider the term as x as what we have to find. Then convert the problem to the equation model. Hence solve it for x.