Question

The sum of two consecutive odd numbers is 44. What is the smaller number?

Answer 1

21+23=44

Answer 2

Let the smaller number be x
The next larger (consecutive) odd numbe is 2 more than x, so it's x + 2
The sum of the numbers x and x + 2 is 44, so
x + x + 2 = 44
Solve the equation for x.

Answer 3

In case you need to do any more problems like these, when you need odd or even consecutive numbers, set up an equation like so:

x+(x+2)+(x+4)+...=N
In this case, we would have had:
x+(x+2)=44
2x+2=44
2x=42
x=21

x is our 1st term, x+2 is our 2nd, and so on. If we just have a problem with consecutive numbers (not odd or even), replace the 2 with a 1, and just continue on adding 1 to each term:

x+(x+1)+(x+2)+(x+3)...=N