The sum of three consecutive odd numbers is 87. What is the smallest of these numbers?

27

Step-by-step explanation:

Let the first (the smallest) of these consecutive odd numbers be n.

Then the other two are n+2 and n+4. Adding up these 3 numbers results in 87 = 3n + 6, so that 3n = 81 and n = 27.

The three consecutive odd integers are 27, 29 and 31. The smallest is 27.