How do you find two consecutive, negative integers whose product is 156?

1 Answer
Jul 19, 2016

-13 xx -12 = 15613×12=156

Explanation:

Let the two integers be x and x+1xandx+1

Their product will be positive.

x xx (x+1) = 156" "x×(x+1)=156 this leads to a quadratic equation.

x^2 +x -156 =0x2+x156=0

We need factors of 156 which differ by 1.

They will need to be very close to sqrt156156, so lets start there.
sqrt 156 = 12.4899156=12.4899

12 xx 13 = 15612×13=156 which gives us exactly what we want.

(x +13)(x-12) = 0(x+13)(x12)=0

x = -13 or x = 12" "x=13orx=12 reject 12 as we are looking for negative integers.

The integers are -13 and -12.