I'm a second year Education major, and I'm having a hard time answering these two questions. If you are not allowed to tell me the answer, could you at least let me know what process might be used to figure them out?

1. A man's age at death was 1/29 of the year of his birth. How old was he in 1949?
2. At a contest, 2 persons were asked their ages. Then to test their ability mathematically, they were asked to give the ages together. One gave 44 and the other gave 1280. The first had subtracted one age from another, and the second had multiplied the two together. What were their ages?

Thanks alot!

Teresa Bostic

In the first problem the man's year of birth is divisible by 29. What year, just a few years before than 1949, is divisible by 29? There may be more than one answer to this question.

I would use algebra to solve the second problem. If the two ages are x and y then x - y = 44 and xy = 1280. From the first equation x = y + 44. Substitute this into the second equation and solve for x.