Half way there

The integer 20 20 has the property that, if you sum up positive integers up to i i for i = 1 , 2 , . . . , 20 , i=1, 2, ..., 20, there is a step ( ( at i = 14 ) i=14) where the sum is exactly half of the total you will have in the end for i = 20 : i=20:

1 + 2 + + 14 = 105 = 210 2 1 + 2 + + 19 + 20 = 210. \begin{aligned} 1+2+\cdots+14 &=105\\ &=\frac{210}2 \\ \\ 1+2+\cdots+19+20&=210. \end{aligned}

What is the next number with this property?


The answer is 119.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

2 solutions

If the number we are looking for is n n and m m is the integer for which 2 × i = 1 m i = m ( m + 1 ) = n ( n + 1 ) 2 2\times \sum_{i=1}^{m}i=m(m+1)=\frac{n(n+1)}{2} , then we can solve the equation for m m

m ( m + 1 ) = n ( n + 1 ) 2 m = 2 ± 2 1 + 2 n ( n + 1 ) 4 m(m+1)=\frac{n(n+1)}{2} \implies m=\frac{-2\pm 2\sqrt{1+2n(n+1)}}{4}

so we Need the Argument of the square root to be an integer 1 + 2 n ( n + 1 ) = n 2 + ( n + 1 ) 2 = k 2 1+2n(n+1)=n^2+(n+1)^2=k^2 for some postive integer k k . We Need to look for leg-leg Pythagorean triples then. the next one of them is ( 119 , 120 , 169 ) (119,120,169) , which makes n = 119 n=119

Mark Hennings
Dec 1, 2018

We want to find positive integers m , n m,n such that 2 × 1 2 m ( m + 1 ) = 1 2 n ( n + 1 ) 2 \times \tfrac12m(m+1) = \tfrac12n(n+1) , which simplifies to read ( 2 n + 1 ) 2 2 ( 2 m + 1 ) 2 = 1 (2n+1)^2 - 2(2m+1)^2 \; = \; -1 and so we need to look for solutions of Pell's equation. The solutions in positive integers of x 2 2 y 2 = 1 x^2 - 2y^2 \;= \; -1 and are given by x n + y n 2 = ( 1 + 2 ) 2 n + 1 n N { 0 } x_n + y_n \sqrt{2} \; = \; (1 + \sqrt{2})^{2n+1} \hspace{2cm} n \in \mathbb{N} \cup \{0\} We note that x 2 + y 2 2 = ( 1 + 2 ) 5 = 41 + 29 2 x_2 + y_2\sqrt{2} = (1 + \sqrt{2})^5 \; = \; 41 + 29\sqrt{2} , which gives the n = 20 n=20 , m = 14 m=14 solution in the question. The next pair is x 3 + y 3 2 = ( 1 + 2 ) 7 = 239 + 169 2 x_3 + y_3\sqrt{2} \; = \; (1 + \sqrt{2})^7 \; = \; 239 + 169\sqrt{2} which gives n = 119 n = \boxed{119} and m = 84 m=84 as the next solution.

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...