Question

Fred is 4 years older than Barney. Five years ago the sum of their ages was 48. How old are they now?

Answer 1

Fred is `31` years old

Barney is `27` years old

Explanation:

Let Fred's age be denoted as `F`, and Barney's as `B`.

Then, `F = B + 4` (in years).

Five years ago, the sum of their ages was `48`:

`Rightarrow F + B = 48`

`Rightarrow (B + 4) + B = 48`

`Rightarrow 2B = 44`

`therefore B = 22`

So, five years ago Barney was `22` years old.

Let's find out how old Fred was five years ago:

`Rightarrow F = B + 4 = 22 + 4 = 26`

Fred was `26` years old, five years ago.

Therefore, Fred is now `26 + 5 = 31` years old and Barney is `22 + 5 = 27` years old.