A father is three times as old as his son. In 12 years time, he will be twice as old as his son. Find the present ages of father and the son.

Let the present age of father be x years and the present age of his son be y years.

The present age of father is three times the age of the son. Thus, we have

After 12 years, father’s age will beyears and son’s age will beyears. Thus using the given information, we have

So, we have two equations

Here x and y are unknowns. We have to solve the above equations for x and y.

By using cross-multiplication, we have

Hence, the present age of father isyears and the present age of son isyears.