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When I got to junior high school at about 11 years old, I had transferred from the same school, from a poor neighborhood to the smart kids' school, because I had high scores on school district-wide testing.
On the first day, I had math class in third period. The teacher had an activity for us, and he explained about a mathematician who was in his math class as a child. He said that this mathematician, as a kid, was asked to add all the numbers from 1 to 100 along with his class... Just as were we going to be challenged with today. The story went that this mathematician was the only kid in his class to use a formula rather than add each number individually, he said.
I thought, cool, and I figured out a formula in that moment: If you take the first number, 1, and the last, 100, that's 101. And if you take the second number, and then the second-to-last number, that's also 101. This pattern should continue...
...So I wrote down: 101*50 = 5050.
The teacher came by and saw the equation and smiled. "Ahh you have heard of this before," he said.
"No, I just thought of it right now!"
He nodded with a grin, saying, "Sure you did," and he walked away.
I tried to answer this question but it seems really hard for me. It is an extra question for my course and it might give me good grade. I need your help guys :). thanks