2003 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 1

The following problem is from both the 2003 AMC 12A #1 and 2003 AMC 10A #1, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

What is the difference between the sum of the first $2003$ even counting numbers and the sum of the first $2003$ odd counting numbers?

$\mathrm{(A) \ } 0\qquad \mathrm{(B) \ } 1\qquad \mathrm{(C) \ } 2\qquad \mathrm{(D) \ } 2003\qquad \mathrm{(E) \ } 4006$

Solution 1

The first $2003$ even counting numbers are $2,4,6,...,4006$ .

The first $2003$ odd counting numbers are $1,3,5,...,4005$ .

Thus, the problem is asking for the value of $(2+4+6+...+4006)-(1+3+5+...+4005)$ .

$(2+4+6+...+4006)-(1+3+5+...+4005) = (2-1)+(4-3)+(6-5)+...+(4006-4005)$

$= 1+1+1+...+1 = \boxed{\mathrm{(D)}\ 2003}$

Solution 2

Using the sum of an arithmetic progression formula, we can write this as $\frac{2003}{2}(2 + 4006) - \frac{2003}{2}(1 + 4005) = \frac{2003}{2} \cdot 2 = \boxed{\mathrm{(D)}\ 2003}$ .

Solution 3

The formula for the sum of the first $n$ even numbers, is $S_E=n^{2}+n$ , (E standing for even).

Sum of first $n$ odd numbers, is $S_O=n^{2}$ , (O standing for odd).

Knowing this, plug $2003$ for $n$ ,

$S_E-S_O= (2003^{2}+2003)-(2003^{2})=2003 \Rightarrow$ $\boxed{\mathrm{(D)}\ 2003}$ .

Solution 4

In the case that we don't know if $0$ is considered an even number, we note that it doesn't matter! The sum of odd numbers is $O=1+3+5+...+4005$ . And the sum of even numbers is either $E_1=0+2+4...+4004$ or $E_2=2+4+6+...+4006$ . When compared to the sum of odd numbers, we see that each of the $n$ th term in the series of even numbers differ by $1$ . For example, take series $O$ and $E_1$ . The first terms are $1$ and $0$ . Their difference is $|1-0|=1$ . Similarly, take take series $O$ and $E_2$ . The first terms are $1$ and $2$ . Their difference is $|1-2|=1$ . Since there are $2003$ terms in each set, the answer $\boxed{\mathrm{(D)}\ 2003}$ .

Solution 5 (Fastest method)

We can pair each term of the sums - the first even number with the first odd number, the second with the second, and so forth. Then, there are 2003 pairs with a difference of 1 in each pair - 2-1 is 1, 4-3 is 1, 6-5 is 1, and so on. Then, the solution is $1 \cdot 2003$ , and the answer is $\boxed{\text{(D) }2003}$ .

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2003 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by First Question	Followed by Problem 2
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25
All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

2003 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by First Question	Followed by Problem 2
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZRnm_DGFfY Video solution by canada math

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