The product of two consecutive negative integers is 600. what is the value of the lesser integer? –60 –30 –25 –15

To answer the problem above, let x be the first integer and x + 1 be the next integer. Given that their product is 600, the equation that best models this situation is,
                             (x)(x + 1) = 600
Simplify,
                                x² + x - 600 = 0 
The roots of the equation above is 24 and -25. Since we are asked for the negative integers, we take x = -25. Thus, the first integer is -25 and the second integer is -24. The lesser integer is -25.