2002 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 13
Problem
The sum of consecutive positive integers is a perfect square. The smallest possible value of this sum is
Solution
Solution 1
Let be the consecutive positive integers. Their sum, , is a perfect square. Since is a perfect square, it follows that is a perfect square. The smallest possible such perfect square is when , and the sum is .
Solution 2
Notice that all five choices given are perfect squares.
Let be the smallest number, we have $a+(a+1)+(a+2)+...+(a+17)=17a+\sum{17}{1$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg)$
See also
2002 AMC 12B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
Preceded by Problem 12 |
Followed by Problem 14 |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 | |
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions |
The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.