Question 167371: Three exteenagers find the product of their ages is 26,390. Find the sum of their ages?
Answer by Alan3354(69443)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Three exteenagers find the product of their ages is 26,390. Find the sum of their ages?
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Since they're "exteenagers" they're all older than 19. The problem is to factor 26390 into 3 factors that are greater than 19.
There's only one 2 factor in 26390, so only one factor is an even number.
One approach is to factor it completely and the assemble 3 numbers greater than 19.
26390 = 2 x 5 x 7 x 13 x 29
29 is OK by itself, so make 2 numbers >19 out of the remaining 4.
2, 5, 7 and 13
2 times 5 or 7 is less than 20, so that's no good.
2*13 = 26 and 5*7 = 35 works, so it's:
26, 35 and 29
BTW, there's no algebraic solution to this problem. It's trial and error.
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