2002 Volume 6 Number 2
Asking Converse Questions and Looking for Extensions to Gauss’s Method for Summing Arithmetic Progressions
Tay Eng Guan and Zhao Dongsheng
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Abstract: Posing good problems is important for learning, teaching and research in mathematics. In this paper, the converse problem posing strategy is applied to Gauss’s method that has been used to obtain the summation formula of an Arithmetic Progression. The work here serves as a simple but typical example to demonstrate the use of this strategy. The results obtained may also help the reader see to what extent Gauss’s method can be applied, thus enriching one’s understanding of this famous method.