Question

What is the predecessor of $17\,?$

Answer 1

Hint: The given question is about writing the predecessor of a given number. Predecessor is nothing but simply the number that is preceding it or simply we can say that one number less than the given number is called the predecessor of the given number.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Predecessor meaning in maths is a number that precedes another number or comes before the given number.
In other words, the predecessor of a given number is $1$ less than the given number.
The predecessor of a given number can be found by subtracting $1$ to the given number.
Thus,
We can also find the predecessor of a negative number. The predecessor of a negative number can also be found in the similar manner.
This means that there is a general formula to find the predecessor of a given number.
So, we can easily find the predecessor of a given number by using the formula $\left( {n - 1} \right)$ .
One important point to be noted is that we can only find the predecessor of integers. So, apply the formula only on integers.
Therefore,
The predecessor of $17$ $ = \,17\, - \,1\, = 16$
So, the correct answer is “16”.

Note: One important point to be discussed is that the successor and predecessor are both applied only to the whole numbers. It implies that these can be applied to the numbers such as zero, one, two etc. successor and predecessor are not applied to the fractions, decimals, or negative numbers. Hence, every whole number has its successor also every whole number predecessor except zero.