Figuring out the pattern

Geometry Level 3

The series of figures above follow a certain pattern, find the percentage (%) of grey triangles to all triangles in Fig 250 .


The answer is 50.2.

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3 solutions

David Vreken
Oct 19, 2020

As shown on Fig 4 below, the following transformations can be completed on any even figure and still preserve the percentage of gray triangles to all triangles. (The white triangles were changed to blue triangles to distinguish them from the white background.)

From 1 1 to 2 2 , swap each blue right-side up triangle with its corresponding upside down gray triangle.

From 2 2 to 3 3 , rotate the set of blue triangles 180 ° 180° .

From 3 3 to 4 4 , double each triangle by expanding it to the blank triangle to their immediate right.

From 4 4 to 5 5 , skew each parallelogram to make them squares.

From 5 5 to 6 6 , replace each blue square under the halfway line with gray squares near the top.

In general, for each even Fig n n , there are 1 2 n 2 + 1 2 n \frac{1}{2}n^2 + \frac{1}{2}n gray squares and a total of n 2 n^2 squares, for a ratio of n 2 + n 2 n 2 \frac{n^2 + n}{2n^2} .

Therefore, Fig 250 250 will be 25 0 2 + 250 2 25 0 2 100 = 50.2 % \frac{250^2 + 250}{2 \cdot 250^2} \cdot 100 = \boxed{50.2\%} gray.

Chew-Seong Cheong
Oct 18, 2020

The number of all triangles in Fig n n is given by:

S t ( n ) = k = 1 n ( 2 k 1 ) = 2 n ( n + 1 ) 2 n = n 2 S_t (n) = \sum_{k=1}^n (2k-1) = 2\cdot \frac {n(n+1)}2 - n = n^2

The number of grey triangles in FIg n n , where n n is even, is given by:

S g ( n ) = k = 1 n 2 ( 4 k 1 ) = 4 2 ( n 2 ( n 2 + 1 ) ) n = n ( n + 1 ) 2 S_g (n) = \sum_{k=1}^\frac n2 (4k-1) = \frac 42\left(\frac n2 \left(\frac n2 + 1\right)\right) - n = \frac {n(n+1)}2

S g ( n ) S t ( n ) = n ( n + 1 ) 2 n 2 = n + 1 2 n S g ( 250 ) S t ( 250 ) = 251 500 = 50.2 % \begin{aligned} \implies \frac {S_g(n)}{S_t(n)} & = \frac {n(n+1)}{2n^2} = \frac {n+1}{2n} \\ \frac {S_g(250)}{S_t(250)} & = \frac {251}{500} = \boxed{50.2} \% \end{aligned}

Wow I did the same but must have made an error. I kept getting 50.7 :(

Peter van der Linden - 7 months, 2 weeks ago
Lu Ca
Oct 22, 2020

Fig. 2 has 3 gray triangles on 2² = 4

Fig. 4 has 3 + 3 + 4 = 3 + 7 = 10 gray triangles on 4² = 16

Fig. 6 would have 3 + 7 + 7 + 4 = 3 + 7 + 11 = 21 gray triangles on 6² = 36

...

It seem that if fig. n (n is even) has n 2 2 + n 2 \Large{ \frac{n^2} {2} +\frac{n} {2}} gray triangles on n 2 n^2 or in percentage 50 ( 1 + 1 n ) % 50{\Large \left( 1 + \frac {1} {n}\right)}\% than in fig. (n+2) there are n 2 2 + n 2 + 2 n + 3 = 1 2 ( n 2 + 5 n + 6 ) = ( n + 2 ) 2 2 + ( n + 2 ) 2 \Large{ \frac{n^2} {2} +\frac{n} {2}} + 2n + 3 = \frac{1} {2} \left(n^2 + 5n + 6 \right) = \frac{\left(n + 2 \right)^2} {2} + \frac{\left(n + 2 \right)} {2} gray triangles on ( n + 2 ) 2 (n + 2)^2 or in percentage 50 ( 1 + 1 n + 2 ) 50{\Large \left( 1 + \frac {1} {n+2}\right)}

So it's demonstrated by induction that in fig. n (n even) there are n 2 2 + n 2 \Large{ \frac{n^2} {2} +\frac{n} {2}} gray triangles on n² or in percentage 50 ( 1 + 1 n ) % 50{\Large \left( 1 + \frac {1} {n}\right)}\%

In particular for n= 250 percentage is 50 ( 1 + 1 250 ) = 50 , 2 % \Large {50 \left( 1 + \frac {1} {250}\right)} = 50,2\%

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