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{{{#!latex

Really we'll only treat the case starting with 1, but this can be easily ex
tended to cover starting at some $n_0<N$. Given a sequence of numbers $1, 2, 3, \ldots , N$, the series is given by $1+2+3+\ldots+N$. Finding the sum of the series is actually quite simple:
Really we'll only treat the case starting with 1, but this can be easily extended to cover starting at some $$n_0<N$$. Given a sequence of numbers $$1, 2, 3, \ldots , N$$, the series is given by $$1+2+3+\ldots+N$$. Finding the sum of the series is actually quite simple:
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\begin{equation}
     \sum_{i=1}^{N}i = 1+2+3+\ldots+N
\end{equation}

$$$\sum_{i=1}^{N}i = 1+2+3+\ldots+N$$$
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\begin{eqnarray}
    
\sum_{i=1}^{N} i &=& (1+N)+(2+N-1)+\ldots \\
                      &=& (N+1) + (N+1) + \ldots
\end{eqnarray}

The question is where does it stop? That is, how many $N+1$ terms do we have? Obviously if there is an even number of elements in the sequence you can do this exactly $N/2$ times.
This gives us:
\begin{equation}
     
\sum_{i=1}^{N} i = \frac{N(N+1)}{2}
\end{equation}

But what if its odd? Well, the middle term will now be $(N+1)/2$ (think about that a minute and it will be obvious to you), but you only have $N+1$ repeated $(N-1)/2$ times. That gives us the following
\begin{eqnarray}
    
\sum_{i=1}^{N}i &=& \frac{(N+1)(N-1)}{2} + \frac{N+1}{2} \\
                    
&=& \frac{N(N+1)}{2}
\end{eqnarray}

$$$\begin{align}
\sum_{i=1}^{N} i &=& (1+N)+(2+N-1)+\ldots \\ &=& (N+1) + (N+1) + \ldots \end{align}$$$

The question is where does it stop? That is, how many $$N+1$$ terms do we have? Obviously if there is an even number of elements in the sequence you can do this exactly $$N/2$$ times. This gives us:

$$$
\sum_{i=1}^{N} i = \frac{N(N+1)}{2}$$$

But what if its odd? Well, the middle term will now be $$(N+1)/2$$ (think about that a minute and it will be obvious to you), but you only have $$N+1$$ repeated $$(N-1)/2$$ times. That gives us the following

$$$\begin{align}
\sum_{i=1}^{N}i &=& \frac{(N+1)(N-1)}{2} + \frac{N+1}{2} \\ &=& \frac{N(N+1)}{2} \end{align}$$$
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In the above case, we have seen that $N$ represents the largest number in the sequence. If we are looking at a complete graph $G(V,E)$ where $N$ represents the number of nodes ($N = |V|$), the sequence goes from $1$ to $N-1$. How will this change answer? How would it change your answer if we started at $0$ and went up to $N$?
}}}
In the above case, we have seen that $$N$$ represents the largest number in the sequence. If we are looking at a complete graph $$G(V,E)$$ where $$N$$ represents the number of nodes ($$N = |V|$$), the sequence goes from $$1$$ to $$N-1$$. How will this change answer? How would it change your answer if we started at $$0$$ and went up to $$N$$?

Summing a finite series of natural numbers

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Really we'll only treat the case starting with 1, but this can be easily extended to cover starting at some $$n_0<N$$. Given a sequence of numbers $$1, 2, 3, \ldots , N$$, the series is given by $$1+2+3+\ldots+N$$. Finding the sum of the series is actually quite simple:

Given the series:

$$$\sum_{i=1}^{N}i = 1+2+3+\ldots+N$$$

We can rearrange the series like so:

$$$\begin{align} \sum_{i=1}^{N} i &=& (1+N)+(2+N-1)+\ldots \\ &=& (N+1) + (N+1) + \ldots \end{align}$$$

The question is where does it stop? That is, how many $$N+1$$ terms do we have? Obviously if there is an even number of elements in the sequence you can do this exactly $$N/2$$ times. This gives us:

$$$\sum_{i=1}^{N} i = \frac{N(N+1)}{2}$$$

But what if its odd? Well, the middle term will now be $$(N+1)/2$$ (think about that a minute and it will be obvious to you), but you only have $$N+1$$ repeated $$(N-1)/2$$ times. That gives us the following

$$$\begin{align} \sum_{i=1}^{N}i &=& \frac{(N+1)(N-1)}{2} + \frac{N+1}{2} \\ &=& \frac{N(N+1)}{2} \end{align}$$$

So we see that this series always converges to the same formula.

In the above case, we have seen that $$N$$ represents the largest number in the sequence. If we are looking at a complete graph $$G(V,E)$$ where $$N$$ represents the number of nodes ($$N = |V|$$), the sequence goes from $$1$$ to $$N-1$$. How will this change answer? How would it change your answer if we started at $$0$$ and went up to $$N$$?

SummingFiniteIntegerSeries (last edited 2020-01-26 21:02:57 by scot)