Math Puzzle: Play Architect with These Homes of Playing cards
Jovan constructed these 5 homes of playing cards utilizing a complete of precisely 90 enjoying playing cards. Now he desires to construct one massive home consisting of precisely 100 playing cards. Can such a home of playing cards exist?
You may construct a home of playing cards with precisely 100 playing cards; it would have eight flooring.
The variety of playing cards will increase degree by degree in a continuing sequence. If you wish to show the puzzle’s reply, it’s important to present that 100 is a time period on this sequence.
As a result of the distinction between phrases all the time modifications the identical quantity—the “second distinction” is fixed—you may conclude that the sequence, with variety of playing cards Okay and variety of rows x, could be represented by a quadratic equation of the shape Okay = ax2 + bx + c.
First, decide the values for a, b and c. This may be achieved utilizing a system of three equations:
With the values discovered for a, b and c and the calculated worth for Okay = 100, now you can remedy the quadratic equation.
One of many values for x is a pure quantity that allows you to construct a home of playing cards out of precisely 100 playing cards.
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This puzzle initially appeared in Spektrum der Wissenschaft and was reproduced with permission.