find three consecutive integers such that the product of -5 and the sum of the first two is 43 less than twice the second

Question

need help understand how to do problems such as this one

Answer 1

Three consecutive integers can be represented by X, X+1, and X+2  

 

Once you have defined these variables, just translate from the words in the problem into math expressions  

 

"The product of -5 and the sum of the first two" is  -5*(X + X+1)  = -5*(2X+1)  

 

"43 less than twice the second" is 2*(X+1) - 43  

 

The "is" between these 2 phrases means that these 2 expressions are equal, so set them equal to each other and solve for X, which will be the smallest integer.  The other 2 will be X+1 and X+2.  When you find the 3 integers, check that they are correct by seeing that they satisfy the conditions in the problem.