help with this question please

Question

Three consecutive integers have a sum of 30. Which equation can be used to find x, the value of the smallest of the three numbers?

Answer 1

This kind of problem always seems like it's a bit confusing, but there's a trick that works.

We can use the letter x to stand for the smallest of the three numbers. Since the three integers are consecutive, the second smallest number must be x + 1 and the third smallest (largest) number must be x + 2.

Since all three of the numbers add up to 30:

x + (x + 1) + (x + 2) = 30