ACADEMIC SESSION, 2020 – 2021

LINEAR EQUATION
GRADE: VIII

A linear equation looks like any other equation. It is made

up of two expressions set equal to each other. A linear
equation is special because:

1. It has one or two variables.

2. No variable in a linear equation is raised to a power
greater than 1 or used as the denominator of a
fraction.
3. Linear equations graph as straight lines.

Reading Passage:

How to solve Age Word Problems?

If the problem involves a single person, then it is similar to an Integer Problem.

Read the problem carefully to determine the relationship between the numbers.
This is shown in the examples involving a single person.

1. Five years ago, John’s age was half of the age he will be in 8 years. How old
is he now?

2. Ten years from now, Orlando will be three times older than he is today. What
is his current age?

3. In 20 years, Kayleen will be four times older than she is today. What is her
current age?

1
If the age problem involves the ages of two or more people then using a table
would be a good idea. A table will help you to organize the information and to write
the equations. This is shown in the examples involving more than one person.

John is twice as old as his friend Peter. Peter is 5 years older than Alice. In 5 years,
John will be three times as old as Alice. How old is Peter now?

The new relationship (in an equation using the ages in 5 yrs.)

In 5 years, John will be three times as old as Alice.

2
2x + 5 = 3(x – 5 + 5)
2x + 5 = 3x
Isolate variable x
x = 5.Answer: Peter is now 5 years old.

Ex 2, John’s father is 5 times older than John and John is twice as old as his
sister Alice. In two years time, the sum of their ages will be 58. How old is John
now?

Step 2: Fill in the table with information given in the question.

John’s father is 5 times older than John and John is twice as old as his sister
Alice. In two years time, the sum of their ages will be 58. How old is John now?

Let x be John’s age now. Add 2 to get the ages in 2 yrs.

Write the new relationship in an equation using the ages in 2 yrs.

In two years time, the sum of their ages will be 58.

3
Ans: John is now 8 years old.

Ref: https://www.onlinemathlearning.com/age-problems.html#single

Q1. A father and his son decide to sum their age. The sum is equal to sixty years. Six
years ago the age of the father was five times the age of the son. Six years from
now the son’s age will be:
Q2. The difference in the age of two people is 20 years. If 5 years ago, the elder one of
the two was 5 times as old as the younger one, then their present ages are equal
to:
Q3. Yasir is fifteen years elder than Mujtaba. Five years ago, Yasir was three times as
old as Mujtaba. Then Yasir’s present age will be:
Ref: https://www.toppr.com/guides/quantitative-aptitude/age-problems/equation-problems-of-age/