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Travis is 66 years younger than Alicia 7 years ago Alicia's age was 3 times Travis age how old is Travis now? What's the formula

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    There is a [formula](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cramer's_rule) (once you've written out the equations), but I doubt you want to use it :) – 2017-02-21
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    Why is that? Isn't that how I would figure out the answer – 2017-02-21
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    Welcome to MathSE. When you pose a question here, it is expected that you include your own thoughts on the problem. Please indicate what you have tried and where you are stuck. – 2017-02-21

2 Answers 2

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Well, another way to solve it is to let $T$ and $A$ be the ages of Travis and Alicia 7 years ago respectively. Therefore, you must solve: $$\begin{cases} T+66=A \\ A=3T \end{cases}$$ After solving this system, just add $T$ by $7$ to get Travis' current age.

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There's no particular formula for this. But you can do it this way -

Let Alicia' age be $x$ and Travis' age be $y$.

So, $y$ = $x - 66 \implies x = y+66$ .....(1)
Also, $x-7 = 3(y-7)$
$\implies x-7 = 3y-21$
$\implies x=3y-14$ .....(2)

So, from (1) and (2);
$y+66 = 3y-14$

$\implies y=40$