Tanner is 3 years younger than his sister lexi the sum of the siblings ages is 33 how old are tanner and lexi

Tanner is 15 and lexi is 18. if you set up an equation you can figure this out. lexi’s age is x and tanner’s age is x - 3 because he is three years younger than lexi. add the two together: x+x-3. we know that this is equal to 33 as stated in the problem. then the equation is x + x - 3 = 33. add three to each side to simplify. x + x = 36. x + x are likes terms so you can combine them to 2x. this is still equal to 36. therefore, 2x = 36. divide each side by two to get x on its own to figure out lexis age, which is 18. if tanner is three years younger, he must be 15