The product of two consectuve even numbers is 360. Find the numbers.
I tried this:
x+(x+2)=360
2x+2=360
x=179, which would mean the numbers are 179 and 181, but those are not even numbers...
How am I supposed to solve this?
the statement said the "product of" which means you're suppose to multiply the consecutive even numbers!
x(x+2)=360
Small mistakes! Thank you so much (:
To solve this problem, you need to set up the equation correctly. Let's break it down step by step:
1. Let's assume the first even number is x.
2. The next consecutive even number would be x + 2.
Now, according to the problem, the product of these two even numbers is 360. So, we can set up the equation as follows:
x * (x + 2) = 360
Expanding the equation:
x^2 + 2x = 360
Rearranging the equation to bring all terms to one side:
x^2 + 2x - 360 = 0
Now, you need to solve this quadratic equation for x. To do this, you can either factorize it or use the quadratic formula. Let's use factoring in this case:
(x + 20)(x - 18) = 0
Setting each factor equal to zero:
x + 20 = 0 or x - 18 = 0
Solving for x:
x = -20 or x = 18
Since we are looking for even numbers, we can ignore the negative solution. So, the first even number (x) is 18.
To find the next consecutive even number, x + 2:
18 + 2 = 20
Therefore, the two consecutive even numbers whose product is 360 are 18 and 20.