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Math Word Problems: Solving Number Problems Part 4

September 24, 2012 GB High School Algebra, High School Mathematics

This is the fourth and last part of the Number Word Problem Solving Series, the first subtopic in the Word Problem Solving Series. In this post, I will post more word problems with solutions. We start with the tenth problem in the series.

PROBLEM 10

There are three consecutive numbers. The sum of the first two is 20 more than the third. What are the numbers?

Solution

Let $x$ be the first number, $x + 1$ be the second number, and $x + 2$ be third number. As the problem says, the sum of the first two, $x +(x + 1)$ is $20$ more than the third. This means that if we add $20$ to the third number, $(x + 2) + 20$ , it will be equal to the sum of the sum of the first two. We now set up the equation