~Denae
~10th grade algebra
~student

In cross country, a team's score is the sum of the first five finishers on the team. The captain of the team finished 2nd in the meet. The next four finishers on the team placed in consecutive order. The team score was 40. in what places did the other members finish?

Denae



Hi Denae,

This is a sport where the low score wins. If the five runners in your team finished first, second, third, fourth and fifth then the team score would be

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15

What actually happened was that the captain of your team finished second and then the other four runners finished in consecutive order. Suppose that the next best runner on your team, after the captain, finished in position p, then the team finished in positions

2, p, p + 1, p + 2, p + 3 These five numbers add to 40. What is p?

Cheers,
Penny

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