Two consecutive odd integers have a sum of 48, what are the two odd integers?

Question

Two consecutive odd integers have a sum of 48, what are the two odd integers?

1 Answer

Impact of this question

16296 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2016-01-27T20:09:53

23 and 25 together add to 48.

Explanation:

You can think of two consecutive odd integers as being value $x$ and $x+2$ . $x$ is the smaller of the two, and $x+2$ is 2 more than it (1 more than it would be even). We can now use that in an algebra equation:

$(x) + (x + 2) = 48$

Consolidate left side:
$2x + 2 = 48$

Subtract 2 from both sides:
$2x = 46$

Divide both sides by 2:
$x = 23$

Now, knowing that the smaller number was $x$ and $x = 23$ , we can plug $23$ into $x+2$ and get $25$ .

Another way to solve this requires a bit of intuition. If we divide $48$ by $2$ we get $24$ , which is even. But if we subtract $1$ from it, and add $1$ as well, we can get the two odd numbers that are next to it.

Science

Math

Humanities

... and beyond

Two consecutive odd integers have a sum of 48, what are the two odd integers?

1 Answer

Explanation:

Related questions

Impact of this question