A certain politician has a brilliant idea. He will increase his popularity and assure reelection by giving away cash to everybody in the country. He will give $1 to a certain U.S. citizen, $2 to another, $3 to another, and so on until he has given away $297,624,985 to the 297,624,985th and last citizen of the United States.

The amount of money he gives away is greater than the U.S. national debt of $8,073,179,035,462.

True or False?

Question

A certain politician has a brilliant idea. He will increase his popularity and assure reelection by giving away cash to everybody in the country. He will give $1 to a certain U.S. citizen, $2 to another, $3 to another, and so on until he has given away $297,624,985 to the 297,624,985th and last citizen of the United States.

The amount of money he gives away is greater than the U.S. national debt of $8,073,179,035,462.

True or False?

anonymous · Answer

is it true?

anonymous · Answer

You can calculate the sum of all the numbers from 1 to 297,624,985 by using
$$\frac{n(n+1)}{2}$$
$$Total=\frac{(297624985)(297624986)}{2}$$