[Math] Average of age in a family

algebra-precalculusaverage

Some days ago my friend sent me this problem, and I couldn't solve it. It's a pretty simple problem, but I'm struggling with it.

It reads:

The average age in a family (mother, father and their children) is $18$. If we don't take the father, who is $38$, into the average, it drops to $14$. How many kids are in that family?

So how many kids are in that family? Any help is very much appreciated.

Best Answer

If you say $s$ is the sum of the ages, and $k$ is the number of children, then we have the following two equations:

$\frac s {k+2}=18$

$\frac {s-38}{k+1}=14$

Solving them gives $k=4$, so there are 4 children.

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