Question

Triangular numbers can be represented with equilateral triangles formed by dots the first fire triangle numbers are 1 3 6 10 and 15 is there a direct variation between a triangle number and its position in the sequence explain your reasoning

Answer 1

Answer:

There's no direct variation

Step-by-step explanation:

Required

Determine if there's a direct variation between the number and its position

I'll start by giving an illustration of how the triangle is represented using stars (*)

*

**

***

****

*****

Represent the line number with y and it's position with x

On line 1:

y = 1, x = 1

On line 2:

y = 2, x = 3

On line 3:

y = 3, x = 6

On line 4:

y = 4, x = 10

On line 5:

y = 5, x = 15

Note that, x is gotten by calculating the accumulated number of stars while y is the line number.

Direct variation is represented by

y = kx

Or

kx = y

Where k is the constant of variation

For line 1:

Substitute 1 for y and 1 for x

k * 1 = 1

k = 1

For line 2:

Substitute 2 for y and 3 for x

k * 3 = 2

Divide through by 3

k = ⅔

Note that the values of k in both computations differ.

This implies that there's no direct variation and there's no need to check further.