Jim, Carla, and Tommy are members of the same family. Carla is 5 years older than Jim. Tommy is 6 years older than Carla. The sum of their three ages is 31 years. How old is each one of them?

I hate these question but here we go.

the order of the kids go from greatest-least in this order = Tommy, Carla, Jim

lets say Jim is x then that means Carla is x+5 which means Tommy is x+5+6

so the equation would be; x+x+5+x+11=31

then we add like terms giving us; 3x+16=31

subtract 16 from both sides; 3x=15

divide 3 from both sides; x=5

in other words, Jim is 5 years old, so add 5 years to that to get Carla's age which is 10 and add 6 years to Carla's age to get tommy's age which is 16.

Therefore,

Jim = 5 yrs; Carla = 10 yrs; Tommy = 16 yrs