https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9veYrYAicH_VHhwcWtRN1FURUE/edit?usp=sharing
In the 18th century, a primary school master in Germany asked his students to find the sum of the numbers 1 to 100. This certainly kept the students busy until the end of the lesson - except for one boy.
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| Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777 - 1855) |
In just a few seconds, Gauss wrote the correct answer (5 050) on his slate (a small blackboard) and handed it up to his teacher. The teacher was certainly dumbfounded, and when Gauss was asked how he got to the answer so quickly, he replied:
"I noticed that 1 + 100 gives 101, 2 + 99 gives 101 and 3 + 98 also gives 101. There are 50 such pairs of sums so 101 x 50 = 5 050!"
So, did Gauss pave the way for the formula below? What do you think?
Biography reference: http://www.math.wichita.edu/history/men/gauss.html (retrieved 07/08/13)
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