This is the second blog in our sequence of blogs on how to build number sense.
In a recent newsletter, we posted a seemingly simple addition problem: What is the sum of all odd numbers from 1 to 31? Of course, you can compute the sum by just adding the numbers one by one. However, this may take a while, and if you are not very careful, it’s easy to make a mistake in the computation.
How can you do it faster? In the comic strip below, our clever friend Snoopy illustrates a solution by looking for “patterns” in the addition process.
The pattern is quite amazing, isn’t it? Using the same idea, you should be ready to quickly compute the sum of any sequence of consecutive odd numbers. Give it a try and have fun!
Stay tuned for more blogs on building number sense :)