Middle School

The sum of three consecutive odd numbers is 159. What is the smallest of the three numbers?

Answer :

Since we don't know where to start, we can always give that a variable which in this case, it's X. Since we are finding the sum of three consecutive odd numbers, we will be skipping numbers so we can add 2 each time. Now, let's set up an equation.

X + X + 2 + X + 4 = 159

3x + 6 = 159

-6 -6 ← subtract 6 on both sides

3x = 153

÷3 ÷3 ← divide both sides by 3

X = 51

X + 2 = 53

X + 4 = 55

Therefore, the smallest of our three consecutive integers is 51.