Calculator disagrees with my summation calculation?

43 Views Asked by At

I’m given a very elementary problem. Solve the following summation for $n=100$:

$$\Sigma_{k=1}^n (5-4k)$$

Which I solve as follows:

$$\Sigma_{k=1}^n 5 - 4\Sigma_{k=1}^n k$$

Which simplifies to:

$$5n - 4 ( \frac{n(n+1)}{2})$$

Or:

$$6n - 2n^2$$

So, I get the answer $-19400$ using this formula. However, when I use WolframAlpha to solve the summation as given, I get $-19700$. What’s going on?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On

$$5n-4\left(\frac {n(n+1)}2\right) = 5n-2(n^2+n) = 3n-2n^2$$