To solve this problem you must apply the proccedure shown below:
1. You have that the ages of three friends are consecutive integers and the sum of their ages is [tex] 57 [/tex]. Therefore, let's call the age of the youngest friend [tex] x [/tex], the middle age [tex] (x+1) [/tex] and the age of the oldest [tex] (x+2) [/tex]. Then, you can write the following expression and solve for [tex] x [/tex]:
[tex] x+(x+1)+(x+2)=57\\ 3x+3=57\\ x=18 [/tex]
2. Therefore, the age of the oldest friend is:
[tex] x+2=18+2=20 [/tex]
The answer is: [tex] 20 [/tex] years old.