1000 roses

Algebra Level 2

Agnis, being the casanova that he is, bought 1000 roses to give out the the girls in his school on Valentines Day. To the first girl, he gave her 1 rose. To each subsequent girl, as he professes his undying like of them, he gave out (strictly) more roses then he did to the previous.

What is the most number of girls that Agnis could give roses to?

Image credit: Wikipedia Frits Hoogesteger


The answer is 44.

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4 solutions

Ryan Tamburrino
Feb 2, 2015

Keep in mind that Agnis has to give out an integral number of roses to an integral number of girls, and he must give strictly more roses at each subsequent girl. To give roses to the most girls, Agnis would have to distribute the roses in fashion of 1 , 2 , 3 , 4... n 1, 2, 3 ,4... n . So, Agnis is giving out 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + . . . + n 1+2+3+4+...+n roses. So essentially, we're looking for the largest triangular number T n T_n such that T n = n ( n + 1 ) 2 < 1000 T_n = \frac{n(n+1)}{2} < 1000 , where n n is our answer, which happens to be 44 \boxed{44} .

Love Triangular?

Satvik Golechha - 6 years, 4 months ago

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Lol ! @Satvik Golechha

Nihar Mahajan - 6 years, 4 months ago

By the way , I am waiting for your 1000 followers problem. :P

Nihar Mahajan - 6 years, 4 months ago
Mj Santos
Feb 2, 2015

Using the formula for the sum of the Arithmetic Progression to get the maximum value of n:

S n = n 2 ( 2 a 1 + ( n 1 ) d ) S_n= \frac{n}2(2a_1+(n-1)d)

W h e r e : S n = 1000 Where: S_n=1000 a 1 = 1 a_1=1 d = 1 d=1

We get:

2000 = n ( 2 ( 1 ) + n 1 ) n 2 + n 2000 = 0 2000=n(2(1)+n-1) \rightarrow n^2+n-2000=0

Using the quadratic formula to solve for the positive value of n:

n = 1 + 1 ( 4 ) ( 2000 ) ( 1 ) 2 ( 1 ) n=\frac{-1+\sqrt{1-(4)(-2000)(1)}}{2(1)} n = 1 + 8001 2 n=\frac{-1+\sqrt{8001}}{2} n 44.74 = 44 n \approx 44.74 \ldots= \boxed{44}

Since we are talking to a person (n should be an integer), n can't be 44.74, so the maximum number of girls is 44.

Why must this give the maximum? He certainly can't give it to 43.7 girls.

Note that there is an arithmetic error in your solution.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 4 months ago

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Updated :)

MJ Santos - 6 years, 4 months ago

This is a bit similar to Infinite , but easy

Nihar Mahajan - 6 years, 4 months ago
Brock Brown
Feb 2, 2015

A little Python simulation will do just fine.

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# AGNIS'S LOVE MACHINE v1.0
roses = 1000
giving_away = 1
girls = 0
# while he still has more to give
while giving_away <= roses:
    # give away roses
    roses -= giving_away
    girls += 1
    # give one more rose next time
    giving_away += 1
print "Answer:", girls

FYI In true D&D rules, the max level is 20. There is not level 42 wizard :)

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 4 months ago

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Incorrect; An experiened kaboobly dooist has the capacity to exceed the standard limit. Downvoted.

Brock Brown - 6 years, 4 months ago

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I stand corrected. If it's a meme it must be true.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 4 months ago

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@Calvin Lin It was a song first. A beautiful, beautiful song.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ACiA1TX0tvA

Brock Brown - 6 years, 4 months ago

Trial and Error n(n-1) all over 2. sqrt(1000)=10 sqrt(10)

Can you add more explanation of what you did?

Why did you calculate 1000 \sqrt{ 1000} ? What does that have to do with the answer of 44?

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 4 months ago

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