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how would I write a variable to represent the sum of four consecutive numbers if the least number is p

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Start with what we know: Our lowest number is
p and we want a sum, let's call that
S.

We know we want consecutive numbers and we want 4 of them. Numbers are consecutive if they come "one after another", that is to say: we can get from one to the other by adding or subtracting 1.

If we start with
p we can get consecutive numbers by repeatedly adding 1 (notice we aren't using the "or subtracting" part here because we know
p is our lowest number).

So: starting with
p, adding one over and over until we've got our four numbers we have:


p

p+1

(p+1)+1=p+2

(p+2)+1=p+3

And now we can write our sum:

S=p+(p+1)+(p+2)+(p+3)=4p+6



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