Julia Earley

March 16th, 2022

Pre Calculus

POW 4: Planning the Platforms

In the problem of the week Planning the Platforms, we are given the task of creating
formulas for a group of people attempting to build and decorate platforms for a performance.
There’s a few different variables that will play into these formulas: The height of the initial
platform (the base height), the difference in height between each platform, and the total number
of platforms there are. It’s important to note that the difference between the platforms increases
the same height each time, making a linear increase. We need one formula for the total height of
the tallest platform, and one for the height of all platforms combined. This information will be
given to the decorator for the event so she can know how much material she will need. Let's help
her out!
For the rest of this write up, I will refer to variables as the following: Difference in height
= d, height of first platform/starting height = b, number of platforms = n. When I first started
working on this project, I decided to tackle the part I thought seemed easiest- the height of the
tallest platform. I began by drawing out what a random number of platforms would look like, and
started to see a pattern. The amount of times that you need to add the difference of height to the
base is equal to the number of platforms you’re counting minus one. So, all you need to do to
calculate the height of the tallest platform is just take the number of platforms minus one, times
the difference in height, plus the base height. This formula looks like (n-1*d)+b.
Finding the formula for the total height of all platforms was a bit more difficult. I split up
this formula into two parts to start working on it– the height of all the bases and the height of all
the differences. Finding the height of all bases is simple, you just need to multiply the base
height by the number of platforms. (b*n) The height of all the differences is a bit less
straightforward. Like before, to find the amount of added height to the base you simply subtract
1 from the number of platforms you’re on and multiply it by the difference in height. You could
write all of this out such as 0 + 𝑑 + 2𝑑 + 3𝑑 + 4𝑑 + 5𝑑... on and on an amount of times, or
write it as a summative using the sigma form. This ends up looking like: (Σ𝑖 − 1 * 𝑑) Where n
is on top and the index is equal to 1. While this can be plugged into a calculator, it is still
considered an open equation because the calculator must go through all the tireless addition steps
above. After a bit of research, I found a formula that converts sigma equations into closed
summation. It states that:
Σ𝑖 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑚𝑎 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑥 = 1 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑏𝑒 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑠 𝑛(𝑛 + 1)/2. With this in
mind, I just applied the negative and turned my sigma equation into 𝑛(𝑛 − 1)/2. Now, I replace
my sigma for that closed equation to get my final equation for the total height of all platforms
as…(𝑛(𝑛 − 1)/2 * 𝑑) + (𝑏 * 𝑛)!
 So, our final equation for the height of the tallest platform is (𝑛 − 1 * 𝑑) + 𝑏, and our
equation for the height of all platforms is (𝑛(𝑛 − 1)/2 * 𝑑) + (𝑏 * 𝑛).

Reflection
Overall, I struggled more with this POW than I had with other math work in awhile. Due
to multiple factors, one being that we had a substitute for most of the work time, I was a bit lost
on how to go about solving the equation. I had help from the sub on learning what sigma
summations were and how to implement them into the POW, but I had to take my own time to
attempt to understand how to turn that into a closed equation. I’m really proud of the work I’ve
done in this POW and am grateful I had the opportunity to push my knowledge.