Formula and Sequence
The maximum number p of pieces that can be created with a given number of cuts n, where n ≥ 0, is given by the formula
Using binomial coefficients, the formula can be expressed as
This sequence (sequence A000124 in OEIS), starting with, results in
- 1, 2, 4, 7, 11, 16, 22, 29, 37, 46, 56, 67, 79, 92, 106, 121, 137, 154, 172, 191, 211, ...
Each number equals 1 plus a triangular number.
Read more about this topic: Lazy Caterer's Sequence
Famous quotes containing the words formula and/or sequence:
“Hidden away amongst Aschenbachs writing was a passage directly asserting that nearly all the great things that exist owe their existence to a defiant despite: it is despite grief and anguish, despite poverty, loneliness, bodily weakness, vice and passion and a thousand inhibitions, that they have come into being at all. But this was more than an observation, it was an experience, it was positively the formula of his life and his fame, the key to his work.”
—Thomas Mann (18751955)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then the queen died of grief is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)