Question

sharon is the yougest in the family anne is 3 years older than sharon and tommy is 5 years older than anneall toghther they equal 62 how old is sharon

Answer 1

Welcome to Open Study. Sometimes those written problems can be confusing. But, if you label what you are told, and some algebra, you can solve.

Answer 2

In this problem we are told that Sharon is the youngest so lets label Sharon's age as x.
Let x = Sharon's age. we are not told that anne is 3 years older than Sharon
Let x + 3 equal = Anne's age. Tommy is 5 years older than Anne
Let x + 3 + 5 = Tommy's age. They sum up to 62 years. This is all we need we now add their ages:
x + x + 3 + x + 3 +5 I will enclose each age in parenthese so you can see it better
(x) + (x + 3) + (x + 3 + 5) = 62 Now it is just algebra which you have already done.
3x + 11 = 62
3x = 62 - 11
3x = 51
x = 17 (Sharon's age)
x + 3 = 20 (Anne's age) and
x + 3 + 5 = 25 (Tommy's age. Do they add up to 62? 17 + 20 +25 = 62 Yes
is Anne 3 years older than sharon?
is tommy 5 year older than anne?