Bunuel
What is the value of the expression below:
1*2*3 + 2*3*4 + 3*4*5 + 4*5*6 + 5*6*7 + 6*7*8 + 7*8*9 + 8*9*10 + 9*10*11 + 10*11*12 ?
A. 2,680
B. 3,680
C. 4,290
D. 5,720
E. 6,170
Solution:Since the answer choices all have a different thousands digit, they are not close to one another. So we can just estimate the given sum. Furthermore, notice that each term in the given sum is approximately the middle factor raised to the third power (1*2*3 ≈ 2^3, 2*3*4 ≈ 3^3, etc.). Therefore, the given sum is approximately:
2^3 + 3^3 + … + 11^3
Let’s also throw in 1^3 at the beginning of this approximate sum:
1^3 + 2^3 + 3^3 + … + 11^3
We now can use the following formula:
1^3 + 2^3 + 3^3 + … + n^3 = [n(n + 1)/2]^2
So, 1^3 + 2^3 + 3^3 + … + 11^3 = [11(12)/2]^2 = 66^2 = 4,356.
We see that the correct answer must be 4,290 since it’s the closest to the estimated sum of 4,356.
Alternate Solution:If you aren’t familiar with the special formula given in the previous solution, we can still get the correct answer by estimating. Our strategy is to pull out the common factor from each successive pair of terms and estimate the sum of each pair.
Factor out 6 from the first two terms 1*2*3 + 2*3*4 to get 6(1 + 4) = 6 * 5 = 30
Factor out 20 from 3*4*5 + 4*5*6 to get 20(3 + 6) = 20 * 9 = 180 ≈ 200
Factor out 42 from 5*6*7 + 6*7*8 to get 42(5 + 8) = 42 * 13 ≈ 500
Factor out 72 from 7*8*9 + 8*9*10 to get 72(7 + 10) = 72 * 17 ≈ 1400
Factor out 110 from 9*10*11 + 10*11*12 to gt 110(9 + 12) ≈ 2300
The estimated and rounded subtotals can easily be added to obtain 4,430, which is closest to 4,290.
Answer: C