Question

Roy is 11 years old and his uncle is 59 years old. How many years ago was Roy’s uncle 7 times as old as Roy?

Answer 1

Hint: We have to observe the relationship between the ages of Roy and his uncle to solve this problem.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Let the present age of Roy be r = 11 years
And the present age of Roy’s uncle be u = 59 years
From the given information, a few years ago Roy’s uncle was 7 times the age of Roy.
Let those few years = y years.
So ‘y’ years ago Roy age = (11 – y) years and his uncle age = (59 – y) years
$ \Rightarrow 59 - y = 7(11 - y)$
$\eqalign{
  & \Rightarrow 6y = 18 \cr
  & \Rightarrow y = \dfrac{{18}}{6} \cr} $
$ \Rightarrow y = 3$
$\therefore $ 3 years ago Roy’s uncle was 7 times as old as Roy.

Note: We have to convert the given information into algebraic equations. We need to observe their present ages and their ages before a few years go accordingly. Then we can easily solve the equation to get the required result.