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Tag Archives: powers
A combinatorial proof: PIE a la mode!
Continuing from my last post in this series, we’re trying to show that , where is defined as which is what we get when we start with a sequence of consecutive th powers and repeatedly take successive differences. Recall that … Continue reading
Posted in arithmetic, combinatorics, proof
Tagged consecutive, difference, function, integers, matching, powers
Leave a comment
A combinatorial proof: counting bad functions
In a previous post we derived the following expression: . We are trying to show that , in order to show that starting with a sequence of consecutive th powers and repeatedly taking successive differences will always result in . … Continue reading
Posted in arithmetic, combinatorics, proof
Tagged consecutive, difference, function, integers, matching, powers
1 Comment
A combinatorial proof: functions and matchings
We’re trying to prove the following equality (see my previous post for a recap of the story so far): In particular we’re trying to show that the two sides of this equation correspond to two different ways to count the … Continue reading
Posted in arithmetic, combinatorics, proof
Tagged consecutive, difference, function, integers, matching, powers
5 Comments
A combinatorial proof: the story so far
In my last post I reintroduced this seemingly odd phenomenon: Start with consecutive integers and raise them all to the th power. Then repeatedly take pairwise differences (i.e. subtract the first from the second, and the second from the third, … Continue reading
Posted in arithmetic, combinatorics, proof
Tagged consecutive, difference, integers, powers
1 Comment
A combinatorial proof: reboot!
More than seven years ago I wrote about a curious phenomenon, which I found out about from Patrick Vennebush: if you start with a sequence of consecutive th powers, and repeatedly take pairwise differences, you always end up with , … Continue reading
Posted in arithmetic, combinatorics, proof
Tagged consecutive, difference, integers, powers
11 Comments
The curious powers of 1 + sqrt 2: recurrences
In my previous post, we found an answer to the question: What’s the 99th digit to the right of the decimal point in the decimal expansion of ? However, the solution depended on having the clever idea to add . … Continue reading
Posted in number theory, puzzles
Tagged conjecture, digits, powers, puzzle, ratio, silver
8 Comments
The curious powers of 1 + sqrt 2: a clever solution
Recall that we are trying to answer the question: What’s the 99th digit to the right of the decimal point in the decimal expansion of ? In my previous post, we computed for some small and conjectured that the answer … Continue reading
Posted in number theory, puzzles
Tagged conjecture, digits, powers, puzzle, ratio, silver
2 Comments
