Summing the First n Natural Numbers

Gautam Sethi

Here is a simple derivation of the sum of the first n natural numbers. In other words,
we want to get an expression for Sn , where

Sn = 1 + 2 + 3 + . . . + (n − 2) + (n − 1) + n

We start with visualizing an n × n square. If n = 10, we have the following square.

As one can see, the required sum Sn is simply a count of the red unit squares. Note
that the remaining unit squares (colored blue) is simply the number Sn−1 . Thus, we
have
Sn + Sn−1 ≡ n2 (1)

1
This can be proven more formally as follows.

n2 ≡n×n

≡ n + n + n + . . . (n times)

≡ [1 + (n − 1)] + [2 + (n − 2)] + [3 + (n − 3)] + · · · + [(n − 2) + 2] + [(n − 1) + 1] + n

≡ [1 + 2 + · · · + (n − 2) + (n − 1) + n] + [(n − 1) + (n − 2) + . . . + 2 + 1]

≡ [1 + 2 + · · · + (n − 2) + (n − 1) + n] + [1 + 2 + · · · + (n − 2) + (n − 1)]

≡ Sn + Sn−1

By definition of Sn ,
Sn − Sn−1 ≡ n (2)

Therefore we have two equations [equation (1) and equation (2)] in two unknowns,
Sn and Sn−1 . Adding the corresponding sides of these two equations, we have

2Sn ≡ n2 + n

≡ n(n + 1)

which implies

n(n + 1)
Sn ≡
2