Question 117950: Find two integers, x and x + 1, whose squares differ by 25. Found 3 solutions by MathLover1, bucky, jim_thompson5910:Answer by MathLover1(20849) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! The two unknown integers are represented by x and by x+1
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If you square the two integers you get:
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and
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Squaring results in
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If you subtract the two squares, the problem tells you that the result is 25. In equation form
this subtraction can be expressed as:
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Notice that in the subtraction the two terms are of opposite sign and therefore
cancel each other. Therefore, you are left with:
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Get rid of the 1 on the left side by subtracting 1 from both sides to get:
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Solve for x by dividing both sides of this equation by 2 to reduce the equation to:
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So one of the unknown integers (that is x) equals 12. The other integer is x + 1 and therefore
it equals 12 + 1 or 13.
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The two integers you are looking for are 12 and 13.
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Check. 12 squared is 144 and 13 squared is 169. The difference is 169 - 144 = 25, just as the
problem requires. So this answer checks and the two integers are 12 and 13.
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Hope this helps you to understand the problem.
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