kate is twice as old as her sister mars. the sum of their ages is 24. find their ages.

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kate is twice as old as her sister mars. the sum of their ages is 24. find their ages.

Let k be Kate's age
Let m be Mars's age

We're given two equations:

1. k = 2m. (Because twice means multiply by 2)
2. k + m = 24

Substitute equation (1) for k into equation (2):
2m + m = 24

T o solve for m, we type this equation into our math engine:
m = 8

We want to solve for k using m= 8. Substitute this into equation 1
k = 2(8)
k = 16

Check our work for equation 1
16 = 2 * 8
16 = 16

Check our work for equation 2
16 + 8 ? 24
24 = 24