Math (Reimy) - Reiny, Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 4:46pm

You are welcome

Just as an afterthought...

There is also a set of numbers called the pyramidal numbers, they are ...
1 4 10 20 ....

Can you figure out the pattern?
(Let their name be a hint.)

1 answer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahedral_number

look at the rotating triangular pyramids and count the number of balls for the different layers

top layer: 1 ball
top two layers: 4 balls
top three layers: 10 balls
etc.

you can figure out the number of balls for any number of layers n by
n(n+1)(n+2)/6

e.g. if n=3
3(4)(5)/6 = 10