1956 AHSME Problems/Problem 25

Problem 25

The sum of all numbers of the form $2k + 1$ , where $k$ takes on integral values from $1$ to $n$ is:

$\textbf{(A)}\ n^2\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ n(n+1)\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ n(n+2)\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ (n+1)^2\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ (n+1)(n+2)$

Solution

The sum of the odd integers $2k-1$ from $1$ to $n$ is $n^2$ . However, in this problem, the sum is instead $2k+1$ , starting at $3$ rather than $1$ . To rewrite this, we note that $2k-1$ is $2$ less than $2k+1$ for every $k$ we add, so for $n$ $k$ 's, we subtract $2n$ , giving us $n^2+2n$ ,which factors as $n(n+2) \implies \boxed{\text{(C)} n(n+2)}$ .

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1956 AHSME Problems/Problem 25

Problem 25

Solution