Question

A patio was to be laid in a design with one tile in the

Answer 1

Answer:

10

Step-by-step explanation:

The number of tiles in the design is 1 + 2 + 3 + ...

We can model this as an arithmetic series, where the first term is 1 and the common difference is 1.  The sum of the first n terms of an arithmetic series is:

S = n/2 (2a₁ + d (n − 1))

Given that a₁ = 1 and d = 1:

S = n/2 (2(1) + n − 1)

S = n/2 (n + 1)

Since S ≤ 60:

n/2 (n + 1) ≤ 60

n (n + 1) ≤ 120

n must be an integer, so from trial and error:

n ≤ 10

Mr. Tong should use 10 tiles in the final row to use the most tiles possible.