Question

The sum of two consecutive numbers is 73. What are the two numbers?

(consecutive numbers are like 5 and 6, they follow right after each other)
and

Answer 1

36 and 37

Explanation:

Assuming the two consecutive numbers are integers (as you said, 5 and 6, 12 and 13, etc.) the numbers would always be an odd and an even number, and thus their sum would always be an odd number.

We can approach this by subtracting one from their sum and dividing the difference by two. The result would be the first number, and adding 1 to the result will equal the second number.

In this case, we would first subtract 1 from 73, which would yield 73 - 1 = 72. Then, we divide it by two, 72 / 2 = 36. That is our first number.

We find the second number by adding the 1 we subtracted earlier to our quotient, 36 + 1 = 37.

Our consecutive numbers are 36 and 37, which add up to 36 + 37 = 73.