Dots, numbers and the mind of a child-genius
This post will show some beautiful and simple arithmetic. We will represent a seemingly complex question using triangles and and see how, at 8 years of age, famous 19th century mathematician Gauss added all the whole numbers from 1 to 100 in seconds. How many dots in the triangle? Here are a few triangles, drawn with dots only: A triangle with 2 levels and 3 dots A triangle with 3 levels and 6 dots A triangle with 4 levels and 10 dots Notice that each triangle answers the question, what is the sum of the whole numbers from 1 to the last level of the triangle? The triangle with 2 levels has 1 + 2 = 3 dots The triangle with 3 levels has 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 dots The triangle with 4 levels has 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10 dots Th...