Thursday 17 March 2011

My Minecraft Pyramid(Math Edition)

So seeing as i just can't go to bed at 4 am like a normal person and wake up for early for a class at 9:30. I figure hey i wonder how many blocks it took me to make that huge pyramid. So i determined a summation for it. First i needed to know how big the pyramid was in height measure by blocks. So starting from the base and all the way up to the top. It was 58 blocks high. Now as far as the width goes. The pyramid is not solid, but instead made of ring layers.The width is always changing by 8 blocks each time starting at the first drop down from the very top block. So as an ACII drawing.



 Layer 0                                  x  = 1
 Layer 1                                xxx = 8 ----aerial view of layer->   xxx As seen 8 blocks to make this ring layer
 Layer 2                              xxxxx = 16                                      x  x
 Layer 3                            xxxxxxx = 24                                     xxx

So starting from the top each layer below the top is 8 blocks or more. We will denote the very top of the pyramid as layer 0.  Now we know each layer is 8 blocks more than the previous layer except in the case that the previous layer is layer 0. So we can create a summation for layers  1 - 58.

 58
Σ      8n              This summation will account for all blocks below layer 0. But what about layer 0. 
n = 1

For layer 0 just add 1 to the summation equation.


       58
1 + Σ      8n     = 1 + 8+16+24+32+40+48+....+ 464        
       n = 1


Well this doesn't exactly give us our answer of how many blocks it took to make the pyramid. But at least it shows how big the base of the pyramid is. A whole 464 blocks. WOW.

Using a graphic calculator. Assuming i know how to use the summation function properly on the calculator. It accumulated a total of 13688 blocks  + 1 block for layer 0. So a grand total of 13689 blocks. KOOL.

There you go bloggers. If you want to create a crazy big pyramid of a height of 58 that reaches the sky limit. You need to have at least 13689 blocks of sandstone.

15 comments:

  1. Oh wow, this is some intense math shit.

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  2. Looks like you've reeeaaallly given this a lot of thought XD

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  3. Not a huge math fan but I find myself drawn to you posts.

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  4. minecraftian math.... it's the root to all evils.! :D

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  5. Ahah, no idea how that works out o_O Good job

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  6. thats some crazy shit man :D

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  7. Didn't know it had so much math involved O.o Thanks for sharing anyways

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  8. This was amazing. Please do more of this.

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  9. that's awesome man. Great minecraft pyramid, cool math with it too, i find it really interesting. Deff do more

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  10. I found myself in survival mode doing the same thing, except making an equation to make the maximum size for my brick count. Needless to say, I did not know about this summation denotation. Although I did find myself doing a very similar thing. [ Blocks per Level = 8(2h-1)-16 ] for a two wide ring on each level. It falls flat on level 1 of course, h=the level(top down).
    I'm sure someone could come up with something better?
    I wanted to be able to graph this before.

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