2002 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 7

The following problem is from both the 2002 AMC 12B #7 and 2002 AMC 10B #11, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

The product of three consecutive positive integers is $8$ times their sum. What is the sum of their squares?

$\mathrm{(A)}\ 50 \qquad\mathrm{(B)}\ 77 \qquad\mathrm{(C)}\ 110 \qquad\mathrm{(D)}\ 149 \qquad\mathrm{(E)}\ 194$

Solution

Let the three consecutive positive integers be $a-1$ , $a$ , and $a+1$ . So, $a(a-1)(a+1)=a^3-a=24a$ . Rearranging and factoring, $a(a+5)(a-5)=0$ , so $a=5$ . Hence, the sum of the squares is $4^2+5^2+6^2=\boxed{\mathrm{ (B)}\ 77}$ .

2002 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 10	Followed by Problem 12
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All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

2002 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 6	Followed by Problem 8
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

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2002 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 7

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