University of Visayas Minglanilla Campus

Liesa Mae Laput Grade 10 – C

MATH (Lesson 2: Performance task)

1. Make research on how Carl Friedrich Gauss found the sum of the first 100
counting numbers?

The Gauss Summation is named for Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss. He was
a German mathematician. Gauss is one of history’s most influential
mathematical thinkers. A legend suggests that Gauss came up with a new
method of summing sequences at a very young age. The legend says that
his math teacher asked the class to add the numbers 1 to 100. In other
words, the teacher wanted them to add 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5… all the way
up to 100! The teacher assumed that this would take the students a very
long time. Think about how long it would take you to add up all the
numbers from 1 to 100 one by one. However, Gauss answered 5050
almost immediately. While his classmates toiled at the problem, Carl
simply wrote down a single number and handed the correct answer in to
his teacher. The young Carl explained that he observed that there were
50 pairs of numbers that each added up to 101. So the sum of all the
numbers must be 50 + 101 = 5050. This story may not be entirely true.
But, it reminds us that the youngest students are sometimes the ones to
discover new mathematical patterns. Now, let’s think about the pattern
that Gauss used to solve this problem quickly.

2. Compute the sum of the first 1 000 positive even integers.

1000
S= {2 ( 1 ) + ( 1000−1 ) 1}
2
S = 500 {2 + 999}
S = 500 {1001}
S = 500500

3. How many gifts are given on the 12th day of Christmas?

On the first day she gets 1 gift

On the second day she gets 1 + 2 = 3 gifts.

On the third day she gets 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 gifts.

On the fourth day she gets 1 + 2 + 3+ 4 = 10 gifts.

On the fifth day she gets 1 + 2 + 3+ 4 + 5 = 15 gifts.

On the sixth day she gets 1 + 2 + 3+ 4 + 5 + 6 = 21 gifts.

On the seventh day she gets 1 + 2 + 3+ 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 28 gifts.

On the eighth day she gets 1 + 2 + 3+ 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 36 gifts.

On the ninth day she gets 1 + 2 + 3+ 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 45 gifts.

On the tenth day she gets 1 + 2 + 3+ 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = 55

gifts.

On the eleventh day she gets 1 + 2 + 3+ 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 +

11 = 66 gifts.

On the twelfth day she gets 1 + 2 + 3+ 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 +

11+ 12 = 78 gifts.

We add 1 + 3 + 6 + 10 + 15 + 21 + 28 + 36 + 45 + 55 + 66 + 78 =
364 gifts.