Two men

There are two men, John & Peter. John is 2x as old as Peter was when Peter was 2x as old as John. When you add their ages together you get 72.

How old are they?

Originally posted by JamesScott
There are two men, John & Peter. John is 2x as old as Peter was when Peter was 2x as old as John. When you add their ages together you get 72.

How old are they?

Let the younger age of John be x

2(2x) + (2(2x) + x) = 72
9x = 72
x = 8

John is 32 and Peter is 40

I've been doing problems like these in school recently. Here's one:

A purse containing $4.80 in quarters and dimes has, in all, 30 coins. How many of each coin was there?

Originally posted by c1arinetboy
I've been doing problems like these in school recently. Here's one:

A purse containing $4.80 in quarters and dimes has, in all, 30 coins. How many of each coin was there?

x*0.25 + y*0.1 = 4.8
x + y = 30

I leave the rest as an exercise for the reader.

(Lol DeBranges)