How does one evaluate $1+2-3-4+5+6-7-8+\cdots+50$?

Question

How does one evaluate the sum $1+2-3-4+5+6-7-8+\cdots+50$?

I know how to find the sum of arithmetic progressions: without the negative signs, one simply has $$ 1+2+\cdots+50=\frac{1}{2}\cdot(1+50)\cdot 50=51\times 25=1275. $$

But how does one calculate the one above?

Answer 1

It's $$(1+5+...+49)+(2+6+...+50)-(3+7+...+51)-(4+8+...+52)+51+52=$$ $$=\frac{(2+12\cdot4)13}{2}+\frac{(4+12\cdot4)13}{2}-\frac{(6+12\cdot4)13}{2}-\frac{(8+12\cdot4)13}{2}+103=$$ $$=(1+2-3-4)\cdot13+103=51.$$

Answer 2

Note that $1+2-3=0$. Moreover, you will have -4+5+6-7 and so on... if you consider pairs of numbers, you will always have +1. How much times do you do this computation?

Answer 3

Look at the following: $$1+\overbrace{(2-3)}^{-1}+\overbrace{(-4+5)}^1+\cdots+50$$

So you have $1+\overbrace{-1+1\cdots}^{\frac{48}2=24\text{ times}}+50$ and because $24$ is even the middle part become $0$ and you left with $1+50=51$ and done

moreover, you can generalize it:$$\sum_{k=1}^n(-1)^{\left\lfloor\frac{k-1}{2}\right\rfloor}\times k=\begin{cases}n+1 &\text{if}\,\,\,(-1)^{\left\lfloor\frac{n-1}{2}\right\rfloor}=1,&n\equiv0\pmod{2}\\ 1 &\text{if}\,\,\, (-1)^{\left\lfloor\frac{n-1}{2}\right\rfloor}=1,&n\equiv1\pmod{2}\\ -n &\text{if}\,\,\, (-1)^{\left\lfloor\frac{n-1}{2}\right\rfloor}=-1,&n\equiv0\pmod{2}\\ 0 &\text{if}\,\,\, (-1)^{\left\lfloor\frac{n-1}{2}\right\rfloor}=-1,&n\equiv1\pmod{2} \end{cases} $$

Answer 4

Note that your sum can be written as $$\underbrace{[(1-3)+(2-4)]}_{-4}+\underbrace{[(5−7)+(6−8)]}_{-4}+\dots +\underbrace{[(45−47)+(46−48)]}_{-4}+49+50$$ that is $-4\cdot(48/4)+49+50=-48+49+50=51.$ More generally $$\sum_{k=1}^n(-1)^{\left\lfloor\frac{k-1}{2}\right\rfloor}\cdot k =\begin{cases} -n&\text{if $n\equiv 0\pmod{4}$}\\ 1&\text{if $n\equiv 1\pmod{4}$}\\ n+1&\text{if $n\equiv 2\pmod{4}$}\\ 0&\text{if $n\equiv 3\pmod{4}$}.\\ \end{cases}$$