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Sums of Squares and Pyramidal Numbers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

David Singmaster*
Affiliation:
Polytechnic of the South Bank, Borough Road, London SE1 0AA

Extract

In the June 1981 Gazette, Ian Anderson discussed several ways of finding the sum of the first n squares:

His methods are mostly algebraic and I wondered if there were more geometric ways of obtaining the formula. After some time, I have found several methods which I present here. These methods are based on counting balls in piles and are suitable for exploratory activity at school level.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1982

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