If 3^p - 3^(p-1) = 162 then p(p-1) =  Choose the correct answer:
A) 12 B) 16 C) 20 D) 30 E) 81
It seems like you were really close but you solved for p - 1 instead. I am curious - how did you reason through the question? Perhaps you figured the answer has to be in the form of p(p -1), e.g. (3)(4) = 12. Even then, had you figured p has to be a little bigger (plugging in 4 for p gives you 81 which is too low), So when you reasoned the answer to be 4 you may have plugged the 4 in the (p - 1) exponent place.   Again, a quick plugging in should get you (20) 20 as, the only other answer with consecutive integers as factors is far too big.
<result>C</result>
If 3^p - 3^(p-1) = 162 then p(p-1) =