Finding the 81-Square Element in a Geometric Square Sequence

Question

The following is a series of structures formed by squares with side lengths of 1 cm.

In which structure (element) of the series are there 81 squares?

Video Solution

Solution Steps

00:00 Will there be a term with 81 squares? If so, at what position?
00:03 Let's count the squares in each term
00:24 We can see that the number of squares equals the term's position squared
00:31 Therefore we can conclude this is the sequence formula
00:39 We want to find if there's a term with 81 squares
00:44 Let's substitute in the formula and solve for N
00:48 Let's take the square root to isolate N
00:53 N must be positive, there's no negative position in the sequence
00:58 And that's the solution to the question

Step-by-Step Solution

To solve this problem, let's consider the sequence structure for square numbers. We are tasked with finding the structure that contains 81 squares, implying a perfect square sequence. Therefore, we need to identify the correct term that expresses this number of squares directly.

  • Step 1: Recognize that each structure corresponds to an n×n n \times n arrangement.
  • Step 2: Use the formula for square numbers: n2 n^2 .
  • Step 3: Set up the equation n2=81 n^2 = 81 .

Solving for n n :

n2=81 n^2 = 81

Taking the square root of both sides gives:

n=81=9 n = \sqrt{81} = 9

Thus, the structure in which there are 81 squares is the 9th structure in the sequence.

Therefore, the solution to the problem is n=9 n = 9 .

Answer

9 9