The Twelve Days of Christmas

Algebra Level 3

I guess that you know this Christmas song. If not, a simple search will solve it.

As you can read in music lyrics we have this case:

You receive in the first day:

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

In the second day you receive:

Two Turtle Doves and A Partridge in a Pear Tree

In the third day you receive:

Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves and A Partridge in a Pear Tree

And so on until the twelfth day (look the image above the presents).

After these twelve days you will receive how many presents from your true love?

Image Source: Wikipedia

12 364 288 78

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2 solutions

Ali Jan
Dec 16, 2015

There are 12 1 + 11 2 + . . . 1 12 12*1 +11*2 + ... 1*12 gifts in total.

So we can write that as sum of n*(13-n) for n between 1 and 12 inclusive. We need the sum

n = 1 12 n ( 13 n ) \sum_{n=1}^{12} n (13-n) = 13 n = 1 12 n n = 1 12 n 2 = 13\sum_{n=1}^{12} n - \sum_{n=1}^{12} n^2 = 13 ( 12 ) ( 13 ) / 2 ( 12 ) ( 13 ) ( 25 ) / 6 = 13*(12)*(13)/2 -(12)*(13)(25)/6 = 12 13 ( 13 / 2 25 / 6 ) =12*13 *(13/2 -25/6) = 12 13 ( 14 / 6 ) =12*13* (14/6) = 2 13 14 =2*13*14 = 364 =364

Ananth Jayadev
Dec 29, 2015

I will post the long way of figuring this out:

  1. First Day: 1 + 0 = 1
  2. Second Day 1 + 2 = 3
  3. Third Day: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6
  4. Fourth Day: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10
  5. Fifth Day 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15
  6. Sixth Day 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 21
  7. Seventh Day 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 28
  8. Eighth Day 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 36
  9. Ninth Day 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 45
  10. Tenth Day 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = 55
  11. Eleventh Day 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 = 66
  12. Twelfth Day 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 = 78

1 + 3 + 6 + 10 + 15 + 21 + 28 + 36 + 45 + 55 + 66 + 78 = 364

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