How to solve age word problems? Roy is now 4 years older than Erik and half of that amount older than Iris. If in 2 years, roy will be twice as old as Erik, then in 2 years what would be Roy's age multiplied by Iris's age? Is there any general method or are they all so confusing?

> Roy is now 4 years older than Erik

$$ R = E + 4 $$

> and half of that amount older than Iris.

$$ R = I + 2 $$

> If in 2 years, roy will be twice as old as Erik

$$ (R + 2) = 2(E + 2) $$

> then in 2 years what would be Roy's age multiplied by Iris's age?

$$ (R + 2)(I+2) = \;\; ? $$

Then you just solve the equations. Hopefully you can see that this method will apply to any similar problem equally well.