Okay guys, here is a challenge I have from 8th grade accelerated Alegebra. It's about functions. The whole class was puzzled with it. We need to find the rule of the function.

x | y
in | out
0 | 0 (pattern: + 1 = next y)
1 | 1 (+ 2 = next y)
2 | 3 (+ 3 = next y)
3 | 6 (+ 4 = next y)
4 | 10 (+ 5 = next y)

EDIT: A pattern in this function is that the next y will always equal the previous y + num++ (as in, the value of the number you are adding to y will increase by 1 each time, of course it starts at 1. I added it to the table above). So obviously you can figure out the value of y, but we need the rule of the function, and you can't say prev y + num++, not in real life at least ).

I used a picture of bowling pins in my head, (triangles) each time you added another row and the number of pins you added also increased by 1 each time.

Now, seeing as this isn't programming, and my programming mind is thinking to put y in an array so I could access them like y[0], y[1], etc. I am having a hard time figuring it out. It is our only homework, and two of my friends that have the same class in another hour came up to me and said:

"We asked Mr. Maus if he thought Eddie Ringle could do it, and he said: '"Maybe, because he's kind of quiet."'."



So if you need anymore information let me know.

Thank you.

It's just a triangular number.

Miah... We're THIRTEEN YEAR OLDs.

We may be in Accelerated Alegbra but we aren't that advanced.

lol, triangle umbers, learned that in grade 5 hehe.

It's not that hard, it just looks complex, just look at the = signs. you probably want

ChaosR and me figured it out over MSN... Thank you everyone for your input and thank you Miah for your, interesting equation...

Funny, you guys thought "triangular numbers", I'm sitting here thinking "acceleration!"

Frickin' AP Physics...

-- Griffinhart

PS. Not to sound condescending/insulting, but I'm sorry; you're in 8th grade accelerated Algebra (Is that like Accelerated Reading? Man, I miss elementary school...) and you couldn't confuzzle this one out on your own?

Bah.

You'll need to read between the ='s if you ever seek help from me. That image was pulled from wiki, but I tend to give full disclosure like this anyway.

@Tycho: Maybe an idea for a C++ challenge, calculating Pascal's Triangle?

I'll investigate.