The left and right page numbers of an open book are two consecutive integers whose sum is 333.

Answer 1

Hi D'Arrion,

To find the sum of two numbers, we have to find two numbers that when added together give us the value 333. The problem also tells us that the numbers differ by a value of 1 since they are pages "on the same page".

Since we know,

(page 1) + (page 2) = 333

and we know that (page 2) is one more than page 1, we can substitute (page 2) for (page 1) + 1 to get

(page 1) + (page 1) + 1 = 333

To make it more simple lets replace the value (page 1) with the variable x,

x + x + 1 = 333

we can add the x's together to get,

2x + 1 = 333

Now let's solve for x, which is the value of page 1,

we can subtract 1 from both sides of the equation to get,

2x = 332

then we can divide both sides of the equation by 2 to get,

x = 166

So we know that (page 1) is page 166. We also know that (page 2) is (page 1) + 1

(page 2) = (page 1) + 1

now let's substitute 166 for (page 1) to get,

(page 2) = 166 + 1

(page 2) = 167

So, there you have it,

Page 1 is 166 and page 2 is 167, which together add to 333.

Alternatively, if you wanted to skip some steps, if you know that a given value is the sum of two numbers and those numbers differ by a value of 1, you can divide 333 by 2 and the value you get will be in the middle of the two numbers you are looking for.

333/2 = 166.5

166.5 is in between pages 166 and 167

I hope this helps!