Five siblings have a combined age of 195 years. the oldest is 13 years older than the youngest marc the middle child anne is five years younger than josie the other two siblings are six years apart if the second oldest child is 42 what are the ages of the siblings

This is what someone else answered when someone else asked it. I can't explain it better than this.

So five sibbllings ages are repressented as
a,b,c,d,e
let's have a as youngest and e as oldest in that order
total ages are 195 so
a+b+c+d+e=195
oldest is 13 older thatn youngest
e=13+a
middle child anne (c) is 5 years younger than josie who is an unknow position, we know that she could be d or e or oldest or second oldest
the other 2 are 6 years appart
b and d ar e 6 years appart or b and e are 6 years apart? or is josie the oldest, or second oldest?

second oldes is 42 so
d=42

2 scenarios
if josie is oldest, then see and if josie is second oldest then see


josie is 13 years older than mark
e=13+a
anne is 5 less than josie
c=e-5
the other 2 are 6 years apart
b+6=d
d=42
subsitute and get
b=36
add and get
78+a+c+e=195
a+c+e=117
e-13+e-5+e=117
3e-18=117
add 18 to both sides
3e=135
divided both sides by 3
e=45
subsitute
a=32
b=36
c=40
d=42
e=45


oldest is 13 older than youngest
e=13+a
middle is 5 younger than josie (d)
c=d-5
the other 2 are 6 apart
b=e-6
d=42
subsitute
c=37
subsitute
a+b+37+42+e=195
a+b+e+79=195
subtract 79 from both sides
a+b+e=116
subsitute
e-13+e-6+e=116
3e-19=116
add 19 to both sides
3e=135
divide both sides by 3
e=45
subsitute
45-6=39=b
45-13=32=a
c=42-5=37
this is wrong because b cannot be older than c so therefor AAA si the correct answer

THE ANSWER IS
Josie is the oldest=45
Unknown is second oldest=42
Anne is middle=40
Unknown2 is second youngest=36
Mark is the youngest=32