Question

Find two consecutive even whole numbers whose product is 288

Answer 1

Let's write an equation describing the problem.

Any even whole number may be represented by writing $2n$ in which $n$ is any non-negative integer.

It follows that for a even whole number $2n$ the next (consecutive) even whole number can be written as $2(n+1)$.

We now need to solve the following equation:

$2n*2(n+1)=288$

If we solve for $n$ we get:

$n=-9 ,8$

We have to values, as the equation is quadratic. We take the positive one as the correct one. So $n=8$, and if we plug in this value to $2n$ and $2(n+1)$ we know that the asnwer is 16 and 18.