Sam and Jeremy have ages that are consecutive odd integers. The product of their ages is 783. Which

Discussion in 'Calculator Requests' started by math_celebrity, Aug 11, 2019.

  1. math_celebrity

    math_celebrity Administrator Staff Member

    Sam and Jeremy have ages that are consecutive odd integers. The product of their ages is 783. Which equation could be used to find Jeremy's age, j, if he is the younger man.

    Let Sam's age be s. Let' Jeremy's age be j. We're given:
    1. s = j + 2 <-- consecutive odd integers
    2. sj = 783
    Substitute (1) into (2):
    (j + 2)j = 783
    j^2 + 2j = 783

    Subtract 783 from each side:
    j^2 + 2j - 783 = 0 <-- This is the equation to find Jeremy's age.

    To solve this, we type this quadratic equation into the search engine and get:
    j = 27, j = -29.

    Since ages cannot be negative, we have:
    j = 27
     

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