The sum of two consecutive odd integers is -16. What are the two integers?

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Answer 1 · 2017-01-08T23:49:03

The two integers are $-9$ and $-7$

We will let the first integer be $x$ . The because these are consecutive ODD integers we need to add two to the first integer or $x + 2$ .

We can now write and solve for $x$ :

$x + (x + 2) = -16$

$x + x + 2 = -16$

$2x + 2 = -16$

$2x + 2 - color(red)(2) = -16 - color(red)(2)$

$2x + 0 = -18$

$2x = -18$

$(2x)/color(red)(2) = -18/color(red)(2)$

$(color(red)(cancel(color(black)(2)))x)/cancel(color(red)(2)) = -9$

$x = -9$

So the first integer is $-9$ and we know the second integer is $x + 2$ or $-9 + 2 = -7$