How old am I of 400 reduced by 2 times my age is 224 Let my age be a. 2 times my age: 2a 400 reduced by 2 times my age: 400 - 2a The phrase is means an equation. So we set 400 - 2a equal to 224 for our algebraic expression 400 - 2a = 224 If the problem asks you to solve for a, we type this equation into our search engine and we get: a = 88