Abigail and her son have an age difference of 16 years. The brother is 32 years old. What is the son's age?

Question

ScanSolve AI Tutor · Accepted Answer

Let's solve this age problem.

The question asks for the age of the son. We are given two pieces of information:

Interpret the phrase "the brother".
In word problems, sometimes a person is referred to by different relationships. Given that the question immediately asks "what is the [age] of the son" after stating "the brother is 32 years old", the most logical interpretation for the problem to be solvable is that "the brother" refers to the son whose age we need to find.
Determine the son's age.
Based on the interpretation from Step 1, if "the brother" is the son, then the son's age is directly given as 32 years.
Verify with other information (optional, but good for consistency).
If the son's age is 32 years, and the difference between Abigail's age and her son's age is 16 years, then Abigail's age would be $32 + 16 = 48$ years (since a mother is typically older than her son). This is a plausible age for Abigail, confirming the interpretation.

The age of the son is $\text{32 years}$ .

Answer