Find four consecutive natural numbers if you know that the product of the first two is 38 less than the product of the following two numbers.
x(x+1) = (x+2)(x+3)-38
Now just solve for x, the smallest of the numbers
Thanks, Steve, your equation helped me a lot.
To solve this problem, let's assume the first natural number to be "x."
According to the given information, the product of the first two numbers is 38 less than the product of the following two numbers.
So, the product of the first two numbers can be represented as x * (x + 1), while the product of the following two numbers can be represented as (x + 2) * (x + 3).
Now we can set up the equation:
x * (x + 1) = (x + 2) * (x + 3) - 38
Expanding the equation, we get:
x^2 + x = x^2 + 5x + 6 - 38
Combining like terms and simplifying, we have:
x - 5x = 6 - 38
-4x = -32
Dividing by -4 on both sides, we get:
x = 8
So the first natural number is 8.
The next three consecutive natural numbers would be 9, 10, and 11.
Therefore, the four consecutive natural numbers are 8, 9, 10, and 11.