Mariel is 2 years older than trisha. the sum of their ages is 20. find their present age?

i cant undersrand this word problem

1 Answer
Mar 16, 2018

Trishia is #9#, and Mariel is #11#

Explanation:

Alright, we need two equations for their ages, how about #x+2# for Mariel (since she is 2 years older) and just #x# for Trisha. We also know that together, this equals 20. Now we just need to solve.

#(x+2)+x=20#

#x+x=18#

#2x=18#

#x=9#

So Trishia is #9#, and Mariel is #11#.

Hope this helped!
~Chandler Dowd