Problema Solution

The product of two whole numbers is 360, and their sum is less than 100. What are the possibilities for the two numbers?

Answer provided by our tutors

let x and y represent the two whole numbers


The product of two whole numbers is 360


xy = 360


y = 360/x


their sum is less than 100:


x + y < 100


plug y = 360/x into the last equation and simplify:


x^2 - 100x + 360 < 0


if we draw the graph for y = x^2 - 100x + 360 we see that for every integer x in the interval [4, 96] the inequality holds


click here to see the graph of the equation:


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thus the possible solutions are all the number in the interval [4, 96] that divide 360 (since y = 360/x is integer:


x = 4, y = 360/4 = 90


x = 5, y = 360/5 = 72


x = 6, y = 360/6 = 60


and so on.