Question

A boy is 1 year older than his friend if the sum of of the square of their ages is 421 find their ages

Answer 1

Answer:

Boy's age is 15 yrs and friend's age is 14yrs

Step-by-step explanation:

As the magnitude of age cannot be negative,

age of boy = 15yrs

age of friend = 14yrs

Answer 2

Answer:

The age of the boy is 15.

The age of his friend is 14.

Step-by-step explanation:

Let the age of the boy be x years

They have given that boy is one year older than his friend, so the age of his friend is given by x - 1

The sum of the squares of ages of a boy and his friend is 421

Therefore

$x^{2} +(x-1)^{2} =421$

$2x^{2}-2x+1=421$

$2x^{2}-2x-420=0$

$x^{2} -x-210=0$

The roots of the above equation are 15 and -14

Since age can not be negative neglect -14

Therefore age of boy x = 15

Age of his friend = x - 1 = 14