Two word problems that I can't figure out how to translate into algebra

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okay

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1. Two years ago Janie was half as old as she will be 9 years from now. How old is she now?

2. Brad is presently 6 years older than Pedro. Five years ago Pedro's age was three-fourths of Brad's age at that time. Find the present ages of Brad and Pedro.
 
okay said:
1. Two years ago Janie was half as old as she will be 9 years from now. How old is she now?

2. Brad is presently 6 years older than Pedro. Five years ago Pedro's age was three-fourths of Brad's age at that time. Find the present ages of Brad and Pedro.
Click to expand...

Hint:

1) Let

Janies age now = J

Then

Janies age two years ago = J -2

Janies age nine years from now = J + 9

Now apply:

Two years ago Janie was half as old as she will be 9 years from now

What are your thoughts?

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1. Let "J" represent Janie's age now.
"Two years ago Janie was half as old as she will be 9 years from now."
Two years ago, Janie's age was J- 2. 9 years from now, it will be J+ 9. J-2= (1/2)(J+ 9). That is, of course the same as saying that "9 years from now Janie's age will be twice what it was 2 years ago" which would be 2(J- 2)= J+ 9.

2. Let "P" represent Pedro's age. "Brad is presently 6 years older than Pedro" so Brad's age is P+ 6. 5 years ago, Pedro's age was P- 5 and Brad's age was (P+ 6)- 5= P+ 1. "Five years ago Pedro's age was three-fourths of Brad's age at that time" so P- 5= (3/4)(P+ 1).
 
Great. I've found that Janie's age is 13. The problem I had was that I was initially trying to solve the equation J-2=(1/2)J+9 instead of J-2=(1/2)(J+9).

In the second problem, I did not think to put Brad's age 5 years ago in terms of Pedro's current age. Thanks for the help.
 
okay said:
Great. I've found that Janie's age is 13. The problem I had was that I was initially trying to solve the equation J-2=(1/2)J+9 instead of J-2=(1/2)(J+9).

In the second problem, I did not think to put Brad's age 5 years ago in terms of Pedro's current age. Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
And Subhotosh Khan wouldn't have been as "annoyed" if you had said all of that in our initial post!
 
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