Sum up
David listed ten consecutive numbers and removed one of them. Which number did he remove?
Problem
David listed ten consecutive numbers and removed one of them.
The sum of the remaining numbers was 2012.
Which number did he remove?
This problem is taken from the UKMT Mathematical Challenges.
Student Solutions
Answer: 223
Using nine consecutive numbers and estimation
Imagine nine consecutive numbers that add up to $2012.$
Their average is $2012\div9=223.\dot{5}$, so could be:
___ ___ ___ ___ 223 ___ ___ ___ ___
or ___ ___ ___ ___ 224 ___ ___ ___ ___
219 + 220 + 221 + 222 + 223 + 224 + 225 + 226 + 227 = 2007
Sum needs to increase by 5 to be 2012 so add 228 and remove 223
or
220 + 221 + 222 + 223 + 224 + 225 + 226 + 227 + 228= 2016
Sum needs to decrease by 4 to be 2012 so add 219 and remove 223
Using last digits
Any ten consecutive numbers will have last digits $0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9$ in some order.
$1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9=45$ so adding together all ten gives last digit of $5$
$2012$ last digit is $2$ so the number ending in $3$ is missing.
The numbers are all approximately $2012\div9=223.\dot{5}$ so $223$ must be the missing number.
Using algebra and multiples
Say the $10$ numbers are $n,$ $n+1,$ $n+2,$ $n+3,...,n+9$
Sum of all $10$ is $n+(n+1)+...+(n+9) = 10n+45$
If $n+r$ was removed, then $$\begin{align}10n+45 - (n+r)&=2012\\
\underbrace{9n+45}_{\text{multiple of 9}}-r&=2012\end{align}$$ The smallest multiple of $9$ after $2012$ is $2016$ so $9n+45=2016$ and $r=4$ (since $r\le9$). $$\begin{align}9n+45&=2016\\ \Rightarrow 9n &= 1971\\
\Rightarrow n & =219\end{align}$$ $n+r=219+4=223$ was removed.