Question

The sum of three consecutive even integers is -78, what are the integers ?
how would I describe the use of strategy of writing an equation to solve the given problem ?

Answer 1

First, you need to analize and understand the problem, then you must choose and strategy. There is a wide variety of strategies to solve a mathematical problem, in this case, you can use the following, which is based on the information given above:
 1. You have that the sum of three consecutive even integers is $-78$, therefore, you can given the variable $x$ to the first integer, the second even integer is $x+2$ and the third one is $x+4$.
 2. Calculate x:
 $x+(x+2)+(x+4)=-78$
 $3x+6=-78$
 $x=-28$
 $x+2=-28+2=-26$
 $x+4=-28+4=-24$
 Therefore, the answer is:$-28,-26,-24$