A student opens a mathmatics book to two facing pages. The product of the page numbers is 2352. Find the page numbers.

Answer 1

X * (X+1) = 2352

X^2 + X - 2352 = 0

Factor 2352 => 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 7 * 7 * 3

Since the third term is negative and the middle term is factored into 1 * X, combine the factors into two products that differ by 1.

2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 3 = 48

7 * 7 = 49

Thus (X + 49)(X - 48) = 0

X = -49 or

X = 48

Since the page number cannot be negative, X = 48 and X + 1 = 49.

I hope this helps you to understand the process. Thanks for asking.