Show that the square of any odd number is an odd number

We can talk about any integer (or whole number) with the variable n. n could be any integer, 2, 3 or 100 or 5 billion and 1!If n is any integer, then what numbers could be written as 2n? These are the even numbers. How do I know they would all be even? (They can be divided by 2)How could I generalise all the odd numbers in the same way? (2n+1)We are interested in looking at the squares of odd numbers, so (2n+1)2 or (2n+1)(2n+1)= 4n2+ 4n + 1 We want to know if this is an odd number. We already know that an odd number can be written as an even number plus 1 and we can therefore rearrange: 4n2+ 4n + 1 = 2(2n2+ 2n) + 1, 2(2n2+ 2n) has to be even as whatever is in the brackets is then multiplied by 2. Therefore 2(2n2+ 2n) + 1 has to be odd for any integer n!

AT

Related Maths GCSE answers

All answers ▸

The diagram shows the position of two ships, A and B, and a lighthouse L. Ship A is 5km from L on a bearing of 070° from L. Ship B is 3km from L on a bearing of 210° from L. Find the distance between A and B correct to 3.s.f.


A bag with 750 balls is comprised of 300 red, 200 blue and 250 green. What is the probability of three green balls being in succession, providing the ball is put back between each turn.


Solve 4x+y=7 and 3x+2y=9


Talil is going to make some concrete mix. He needs to mix cement, sand and gravel (1: 3:5) by weight. Talil wants to make 180 kg of concrete mix. He has 15 kg of cement, 85 kg of sand, 100 kg of gravel. Does he have enough to make the concrete?