SOLUTION: I'm so confused on this math problem. Three brothers have ages that are consecutive even integers. The product of the first and third boys' ages is 20 more than twice the second

Question 24278: I'm so confused on this math problem. Three brothers have ages that are consecutive even integers. The product of the first and third boys' ages is 20 more than twice the second boy's age. Find the age of each of the three boys.
Answer by elima(1433) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Three brothers have ages that are consecutive even integers. The product of the first and third boys' ages is 20 more than twice the second boy's age. Find the age of each of the three boys.
Let x be the age of the first boy, snce they are consecutive even integers, they will be 2 way from each other.
1st boy= x
2nd boy= x+2
3rd boy = x+4
"product means the answer to a multiplication problem;
x(x+4)=20+2(x+2)
+4x=20+2x+4
+4x-2x=20+4
+2x=24
+2x-24=0
(x+6)(x-4)=0
x+6=0
x=-6
x-4=0
x=4
SInce we know they are even integers, the answerhas to be;
x=4
so the first boys age = 4
2nd boy= 4+2=6
3rd boy= 4+4=8
Hope you understand, I know I did not really explain what I was doing.
=)

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