The sum of the 3 consecutive positive integers is 110. What are the numbers? What are the equations used to solve this problem?
Since we require the sum of the squares to equal 110 ⇒ X² + (X+1)² + (X+2)² = 110 Expanding the left-hand side: X² + X² + 2·X + 1 + X² +4·X + 4 = 110 3·X² + 6·X + 5 = 110 3·X² + 6·X - 105 = 0 Solve utilizing the quadratic formula and you get roots: X = 5, X = -7 Your quandary doesn't verbalize that we have to restrict the solution to positive integers only and since we are summing the squares we have 2 solutions that work: 5, 6, 7 and -7, -6, -5
