Beauty of Mathematics

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry-- Bertrand Russel.
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Friday 20 February 2015

No. of Squares , Rectangles and Triangles etc in different Geometrical Figures.



In many geometric puzzles they ask about no. of Squares or Rectangles in a Square or a Rectangle. Essentially these questions are pertaining to Permutations and Combinations. However these questions can be solved by simple mathematical formulae.

(1)    No of squares in a square of size nxn: Sum of squares of n natural numbers.

={ n(n+1)(2n+1)}/6

(2)    No. of Rectangles in a Square of size nxn: Sum of squares of n natural numbers.

={ {n(n+1)}/2]2

(3)    No. squares in a rectangle of size mxn= mxn + (m-1)(n-1) + (m-2)(n-2) +……+ 0

(4)    No. Rectangles in a Rectangle of Size mxn

= ( sum of natural nos from 1 to m) ( sum of natural nos from 1 to n)
= {m(m+1)/2}{n(n+1)/2}

(5)    No. of Triangles in a Triangle= {n(n+2)(2n+1)}/8 ; where n is the no. of triangles at the base of the larger Triangle. This formula is to be used when n is even.



(6) No. of Triangles in a Triangle= {n(n+2)(2n+1) - 1}/8 ; where n is the no. of triangles at the base of the larger Triangle. This formula is to be used when n is odd.