Answer: 10 years old
Step-by-step explanation: To solve this age word problem, let's first organize our information:
We know that Shikha's mother is four times as old as Shikha.
Let's call Shikha's age x and her mother's age 4x.
We also know information about their age in 20 years.
Shikha's age in 20 years will be x + 20
and her mother's age will be 4x + 20.
Since we're given information about the 20 years later as a point in time, we use that information to setup the equation.
"Twenty years later, she will be" means the mom will be so that
translates to the expression 4x + 20.
"Twice as old as Shikha will be then" means we are doubling
Shikha's age in 20 years so we have 2(x + 20).
So now we have 4x + 20 = 2(x + 20).
Solving from here, we could distribute but I
would just divide both sides by 2 to get 2x + 10 = x + 20.
Subtract x from both sides to get x + 10 = 20 and when we
subtract 10 from both sides, we get x = 10.
This means that Shikha's age now is 10.
