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Franklin

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If you add all the numbers from 100 to 1 the sum total is 5050.

 

There is a well known story about Karl Friedrich Gauss when he was in

elementary school. His teacher got mad at the class and told them to

add the numbers 1 to 100 and give him the answer by the end of the

class. About 30 seconds later Gauss gave him the answer.

 

The other kids were adding the numbers like this:

 

1 + 2 + 3 + . . . . + 99 + 100 = ?

 

But Gauss rearranged the numbers to add them like this:

 

(1 + 100) + (2 + 99) + (3 + 98) + . . . . + (50 + 51) = ?

 

If you notice every pair of numbers adds up to 101. There are 50

pairs of numbers, so the answer is 50x101 = 5050. Of course Gauss

came up with the answer about 20 times faster than the other kids.

:)

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  • 3 weeks later...
If you add all the numbers from 100 to 1 the sum total is 5050.

 

There is a well known story about Karl Friedrich Gauss when he was in

elementary school. His teacher got mad at the class and told them to

add the numbers 1 to 100 and give him the answer by the end of the

class. About 30 seconds later Gauss gave him the answer.

 

The other kids were adding the numbers like this:

 

1 + 2 + 3 + . . . . + 99 + 100 = ?

 

But Gauss rearranged the numbers to add them like this:

 

(1 + 100) + (2 + 99) + (3 + 98) + . . . . + (50 + 51) = ?

 

If you notice every pair of numbers adds up to 101. There are 50

pairs of numbers' date=' so the answer is 50x101 = 5050. Of course Gauss

came up with the answer about 20 times faster than the other kids.

:)[/quote']

 

Thanks for posting that. My Calculus professor was telling us the same thing the other day but he did'nt tell how Gauss grouped the numbers.

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