HELP WITH AN ALGEBRAIC WORD PROBLEM!!!

I REALLY NEED HELP WITH THIS:

ARA AND SHEA WERE ONCE THE SAME HEIGHT. SINCE THEN SHEA HAS GROWN 20% AND BECAME 60 INCHES, WHILE ARA HAS GROWN HALF AS MANY INCHES AS SHEA. HOW TALL, IN INCHES, IS ARA NOW?

(A) 48 (B) 51 (C) 52 (D) 54 (E) 55



I TRIED THIS PROBLEM AND GOT CHOICE (D) 54. IS THIS CORRECT?
I KNOW IT PROBABLY ISNT. CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN AT LEAST 1 WAY HOW TO DO IT? WHEN YOU POST A REPLY PLEASE MAKE SURE NO ONE HAS ALREADY EXPLAINED IT YOUR WAY-(UNLESS YOU THINK YOU CAN EXPLAIN IT BETTER) I DONT WANT TO WASTE YOUR TIME!!! THANKS A LOT!!!

I may be missing something, but I don't see how this is solvable. I mean, Ara and Shea could have been forty inches tall. Shea grew twenty percent taller, or eight inches, so Ara would have grown four inches (or ten percent taller). Or they could have been forty-eight inches tall. Shead grew twenty percent taller (9.6 inches), so Ara grew 4.6 inches (10%).

I don't see anything in the statement of the question that lets you figure out what, exactly, their heights were.

Sorry.

Eliz.

ELIZ

IM SOOOOOO SORRY!!! I FORGOT TO ADD THAT SHEA'S NEW HEIGHT IS 60 INCHES. IM SORRY ABOUT THAT!!!

Please do not post using capital letters.

x = height that Shea was

1.20x = 60 : that means x plus 20% of x
x = 60/1.2 = 50

So Shea was 50 inches; can you finish it?