Series

Algebra Level 3

Find the sum 1 2 + ( 1 2 + 2 2 ) + ( 1 2 + 2 2 + 3 2 ) + 1^2+(1^2+2^2)+(1^2+2^2+3^2)+\dots up to 22nd term.


The answer is 23276.

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2 solutions

Prasun Biswas
Nov 21, 2014

First of all, we will need to use the following three series formulas to solve this problem. They are:

i = 1 n ( i ) = n ( n + 1 ) 2 i = 1 n ( i 2 ) = 1 6 n ( n + 1 ) ( 2 n + 1 ) i = 1 n ( i 3 ) = ( n ( n + 1 ) 2 ) 2 \displaystyle \sum_{i=1}^n (i)=\frac{n(n+1)}{2} \\ \displaystyle \sum_{i=1}^n (i^2)=\frac{1}{6}n(n+1)(2n+1) \\ \displaystyle \sum_{i=1}^n (i^3)=(\frac{n(n+1)}{2})^2 .

Also, we will use some basic summation manipulations which you find here in the "Identities" section.

Now, the given problem can be represented as follows:

i = 1 22 ( j = 1 i ( j 2 ) ) \displaystyle \large \sum_{i=1}^{22} \bigg( \sum_{j=1}^i (j^2) \bigg)

= i = 1 22 ( 1 6 i ( i + 1 ) ( 2 i + 1 ) ) = \displaystyle \large \sum_{i=1}^{22} \bigg( \frac{1}{6}i(i+1)(2i+1) \bigg)

= 1 6 i = 1 22 ( 2 i 3 + 3 i 2 + i ) = \displaystyle \large \frac{1}{6} \centerdot \sum_{i=1}^{22} \bigg( 2i^3+3i^2+i \bigg)

= 1 6 ( 2 i = 1 22 ( i 3 ) + 3 i = 1 22 ( i 2 ) + i = 1 22 ( i ) ) = \displaystyle \large \frac{1}{6} \centerdot \bigg( 2\sum_{i=1}^{22} (i^3) + 3\sum_{i=1}^{22} (i^2) + \sum_{i=1}^{22} (i) \bigg)

= 1 6 ( 2 ( 22 ( 22 + 1 ) 2 ) 2 + 3 ( 1 6 22 ( 22 + 1 ) ( 2 × 22 + 1 ) ) + 22 ( 22 + 1 ) 2 ) = \displaystyle \frac{1}{6} \bigg( 2(\frac{22(22+1)}{2})^2 + 3(\frac{1}{6}\centerdot 22(22+1)(2\times 22 +1)) + \frac{22(22+1)}{2} \bigg)

= 1 6 ( 11 × 23 ) ( 2 ( 11 × 23 ) + 45 + 1 ) = \displaystyle \frac{1}{6}(11\times 23)\bigg( 2(11\times 23) + 45 +1 \bigg)

= 1 6 ( 11 × 23 ) ( 22 × 23 + 46 ) = \displaystyle \frac{1}{6}(11\times 23)(22\times 23 + 46)

= 46 + 506 6 × 11 × 23 =\displaystyle \frac{46+506}{6} \times 11 \times 23

= 92 × 11 × 23 = 23276 =92\times 11\times 23 = \boxed{23276}

Seth Lovelace
Dec 1, 2014

I solved this in a very simple fashion. First, we can note that there are 22 terms, and second, we can note that each term appears (23-n) times. With this in mind, we can write the following formula:

n = 1 22 ( 23 n ) ( n 2 ) \displaystyle \sum _{ n=1 }^{ 22 }{ (23-n)({ n }^{ 2 }) }

n = 1 22 ( 23 n 2 n 3 ) \displaystyle \sum _{ n=1 }^{ 22 }{ (23{ n }^{ 2 }-{ n }^{ 3 }) }

23 n = 1 22 n 2 n = 1 22 n 3 23\displaystyle \sum _{ n=1 }^{ 22 }{ { n}^{ 2 }-\sum _{ n=1 }^{ 22 }{ { n }^{ 3 } } }

Now these become manageable. We know these two formulas:

i = 1 n i 2 = n ( n + 1 ) ( 2 n + 1 ) 6 \displaystyle\sum _{ i=1 }^{ n }{ { i }^{ 2 } } =\frac { n(n+1)(2n+1) }{ 6 }

i = 1 n i 3 = ( n ( n + 1 ) 2 ) 2 \displaystyle\sum _{ i=1 }^{ n }{ { i }^{ 3 } } ={ (\frac { n(n+1) }{ 2 } })^{ 2 }

With these two formulas, all that is left is for us to evaluate:

23 n = 1 22 n 2 n = 1 22 n 3 23\displaystyle \sum _{ n=1 }^{ 22 }{ { n}^{ 2 }-\sum _{ n=1 }^{ 22 }{ { n }^{ 3 } } } = 23 ( 22 ( 22 + 1 ) ( 2 ( 22 ) + 1 ) 6 ) ( 22 ( 22 + 1 ) 2 ) 2 23(\frac { 22(22+1)(2(22)+1) }{ 6 }) -{ (\frac { 22(22+1) }{ 2 } })^{ 2 }

After simplifying each expression we get:

23 ( 3795 ) 64009 23(3795)-64009 = 23276 \boxed {23276}

If you happen to be curious why the following formulas given are true, it can be proved by induction. Induction is a powerful tool by which, simply speaking, if you can prove a base case for a formula about the integers, typically 1, and then prove the formula for an arbitrary n+1, then you have proved it for all the integers. If you are curious and would like to read more, then visit one of Brilliant's articles on induction, and discover for yourself the power of mathematical induction.

Seth Lovelace - 6 years, 6 months ago

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