I think the first equation is easy to understand "John is 5 years older than Michael." j= 5 + m
The second equation, think about as they only mention this: "john will be twice Michaels age" you will set up an equation like j = 2m, but now they tell you this will happen in 3 years, which means john will be 3 years older and michael will be 3 years older, as well; therefore j + 3 = 2(m + 3)
Hope this help
You have to set up some equations for the unknowns.
1. J = M +5
2. J + 3 = 2(M +3). You get this section from the second sentence. In 3 years, John will be twice as old as Michael. Since it stats 3 years from now, you add 3 to John's age as well as Michael's.
Now you have 2 separate equations. You can substitute J, John's age in the section eqn with M + 5. You do this so you will only have one unknown variable. When you substitute M + 5 for J in the second equation, you will have: