Saturday, 19 July 2014

algebra precalculus - Mind-boggling pattern based virtuoso conundrum

My math teacher is a very funny guy. He gave us this "virtuoso" math problem:
$$\frac{1}{x(x+1)} + \frac{1}{(x+1)(x+2)} + \frac{1}{(x+2)(x+3)} + ... + \frac{1}{(x+99)(x+100)} $$




I like math, but I only stick to the what I'm learning. My math teacher teaches our Honours Algebra II classes, our Math Team and our Math Research classes, but I only have him for regular Algebra II. I suspect this is the type of problems he shows to his more advanced classes. I can't help but look at this and feel utterly dumbfounded. I've been trying to solve this problem for 35 minutes, but to no avail. My math teacher loves problems like this. I understand that this is a very advanced, truly virtuoso math forum, that this problem is a very straight-forward problem for mathematicians of your calibre, and that it could very much be wasting your time but I have no choice but to ask for help. Thank you so much for reading this everyone! God speed and quod erat demonstrandum! ∎
p.s. I know that there is a pattern between the denominators but I have no idea how to solve it without writing everything out by hand and working with a least common denominator

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