ShmoopTube

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Everybody's shmoopin' at ya... you don't hear a word they're sayin...

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In 7 years, Ben will be 6 times Jerry's current age.

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You'd never know there was that big an age difference by looking at their picture.

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What is Ben's current age if J = Jerry's current age and B = Ben's current age?

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And here are the potential answers... OK so what is this question asking?

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It's asking for Ben's current age...

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...but the key thing to notice is that the question is asking for the answer not in terms

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of B, but in terms of J, Jerry years.

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We can start with the variables B and J first.

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We're told that, in 7 years, Ben will be 6 times Jerry's current age.

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"In 7 years" means we add 7 to Ben's current age, and set that equal to 6J.

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So we get B plus 7 equals 6J.

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To isolate B by itself, we can subtract 7 from both sides and get B equals 6J minus

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7... or the answer B.

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As in, "Brownie Batter."

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