Send it back to true love

Algebra Level 2

Suppose the person in the song "Twelve Days of Christmas" broke up with his/her "true love" just a few days after the Christmas season. How many gifts would he/she have to return to his/her true love all in all?

364 88 55 None among the choices 78 12

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1 solution

Efren Medallo
Nov 11, 2015

For any day n n such that 0 < n 12 0< n \leq 12 , the number of gifts the person in the song receives is

g = n ( n + 1 ) 2 g = \large \frac {n(n+1)}{2}

So we need to find

n = 1 12 n ( n + 1 ) 2 \large \sum_{n=1}^{12} \frac{n(n+1)}{2}

= n = 1 12 n 2 + n 2 = \large \sum_{n=1}^{12} \frac{n^2 + n }{2}

= 1 2 [ ( n ) ( n + 1 ) ( 2 n + 1 ) 6 + n ( n + 1 ) 2 ] = \large \frac{1}{2} [ \frac{(n)(n+1)(2n+1)}{6} + \frac {n(n+1)}{2} ]

= 1 2 [ ( 12 ) ( 12 + 1 ) ( 2 ( 12 ) + 1 ) 6 + 12 ( 12 + 1 ) 2 ] = \large \frac{1}{2} [ \frac{(12)(12+1)(2(12)+1)}{6} + \frac {12(12+1)}{2} ]

= 1 2 [ ( 12 ) ( 13 ) ( 25 ) 6 + 12 ( 13 ) 2 ] = \large \frac{1}{2} [ \frac{(12)(13)(25)}{6} + \frac {12(13)}{2} ]

= 1 2 [ 650 + 78 ] = \large \frac{1}{2} [ 650 + 78 ]

= 364 = \large \boxed {364} .

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