Question

The sum of 3 consecutive odd numbers is 177. What is the value of the smallest number in the sequence

Answer 1

Ok this is a very question that can solved very easily. So we know that there three numbers, and they are consecutive, this means that they are all one bigger than the number before so for example 1,2, and 3 or 20, 21, and 22. These numbers are called consecutive. Now let's just pretend that the answer to this question is the variable "x". Now x is the smallest number in all the three numbers.

Using our knowledge of consecutive numbers we can say that the next to numbers will be one more than the number before so:

(x+1) and (x+2)

So we have our three numbers: x , x+1 , and x+2. Now let's set these numbers equal to 177.

177 = x + x + 1 + x + 2 → Combine like terms.

177 = 3x + 3 → Subtract 3 from both sides.

174 = 3x → Divide both sides by 3

58 = x

So that means that our first and smallest number is going to be 58 our second number will be +1 so 59 and our third number will be +2 so 60.

So the three numbers will be 58, 59, and 60.

Hope this helped.