A family has fifteen children. These children were born at intervals of one-and-a-half years. Alice, the oldest child, says that she is eight times as old as Belinda, the youngest child. How old is Alice?
Scroll down for a clue and further down for the answer.
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Clue: You need to create two equations that explain all of the information in the question.
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Answer: Alice is 24 years old.
We can solve this puzzle using algebra.
a = 8b
and
a = b + (14 x 1.5) which is a = b + 21
Combining these two equations, we get:
8b = b + 21
7b = 21
b = 3
Placing this into a = 8b, we get a = 24.
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