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Thesumofthefirstnnaturalnumbers
PostedSeptember5th,2007byIsoscel
Whatisthesumofthefirstnnaturalnumbers?
Let'slookatthisproblemforn=1,2,3,4,and5andcalculatethesum:
1=1
1+2=3
1+2+3=6
1+2+3+4=10
1+2+3+4+5=15
Whatistheformulatocalculatethissum:
Theansweris
Relatedsums:
Thesumofthefirstnoddnaturalnumbers
Thesumofthesquaresofthefirstnnaturalnumbers
Hereisacalculatorthatcalculatesthisfunctionforyou:
n:
1+2+...+n:
calculate
Weshallgivethreedifferentproofsforthisformula.
Proof1:
Thisisanexampleforn=5.Weseethatwehaveabigrectanglewiththeitssides5and5+1.Therectanglehas2(1
+2+3+4+5)squaresinside.So2(1+2+3+4+5)=5(5+1)and1+2+3+4+5=
Thesameway,foranyn,weconstructarectanglewithitssidesnandn+1thathas2(1+2+...+n)squaresinside.
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Thesumofthefirstnnaturalnumbers|9math
Proof2:
(1+2+....+(n1)+n)+
(n+(n1)+....+2+1)=
ifwelookatthesumabovewenoticethatwehavencolumnsofnumbersandthatoneachcolumnwehavetwo
numberswiththesumn+1,so:
Proof3:
Let'swrite
likethis:,
.It'sshorter.
Wewilluseinductiontoprovethat:
1)Forn=1itistruethat
2)Weknowthat
istrueandwewanttoproveitforn+1.
Wehavetoprovethat:
ifweaddn+1toeachsideofthenextidentity:
wehave:
equivalentwith:
andthisleadsto:
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